


Song of the Flying Fish

by RarePairFairy, Tallihensia



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Acceptance, Canon-adjacent, Drama, Friendship, M/M, Mers, Recovery, Shifters, Slow Burn, Yes I know, did I put friendship? more friendship, getting closer, solitude and recovery, world building that got a little out of control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-12 15:57:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19135339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RarePairFairy/pseuds/RarePairFairy, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: Freed from his time as the Winter Soldier, Bucky finds being around people too much to deal with and takes the remotest job he can find – monitoring wildlife and ocean currents in the middle of nowhere.  Alone, he forms a bond with an unusual flying fish... which might be a little more than it seems!Sam, recovering from a large battle, takes an assignment in another world, guarding the gate they came through and checking out the spatial currents and the local wildlife while he’s there.  While he’s swimming around in the seas, he still manages to make human friends, but there's one in particular who catches his eye.





	Song of the Flying Fish

**Author's Note:**

> Artist: RarePairFairy  
> Author: Tallihensia
> 
> Note from Talli: Written for Cat-Hesarose (RarePairFairy)'s art and concept in the Captain America Reverse Big Bang. We did collaboration on the interactions and plotting as we went forward. This has a bit of fun, with smiles, leavened with seriousness, serving up a lot of Sam and Bucky. :)
> 
> This is an MCU-adjacent universe. Not the same as the movies. Just a... few little differences. One upfront is that the world is set ~30 years earlier than movie MCU (mid-late 80s) (~40 years after first Captain America); rest more or less explained in the story. ^^
> 
> Many thanks to betas Tainry and MMouse!

# Song of the Flying Fish

“No, Steve, I can’t stay! I’ve told you this, and then you give me those sad eyes.” Bucky waved at the window and the city outside. “It’s not you, it’s _everything_. I'm glad you rescued me – thank you – but I can't stay. I'm not used to being around people. At least, not as a person. There are too many of them, too much noise, too many expectations.” _And you..._ but he didn't say that part out loud. Saying the rest of it, showing weakness and putting it into words was harder than he'd thought it would be, even knowing it was Steve. They had burned out everything else from him, but Stevie was deeper inside than even his own self.

"Bucky." Steve reached out.

Without moving, Bucky looked at his long lost best friend. He couldn't. Not right now. Not even for Steve. Sometimes he could, but the words had taken all he had. He couldn't deal with touch too.

Steve dropped his hand, smiling wanly. "Buck. I can't say I understand, but all right. If that's what you want, then I'll support it. Whatever you want."

"It's what I need," Bucky spoke more softly now that Steve was backing off. Sometimes it took a sledgehammer to get through that thick skull of his. Stevie was so stubborn that even Hydra couldn't kill him. 

Flexing his metal arm and watching the plates shift, Bucky reflected that the future was a strange, strange place. Both of them freed and awake after forty-odd years gone. Stevie, as always, on the side of right. Bucky... not. Not for a very long time. The Winter Soldier had taken so much of what Bucky had used to be. At least, this time Steve had stopped the Solider before he'd gone too far. Bucky had enough regrets since he'd been captured and controlled. If he'd killed Steve... Bucky closed his eyes.

"I have to go, Steve." 

"Then I'll---"

Bucky stopped Steve before he got through any more of that. "You have to stay. You've found friends here, a team, people who respect you." He didn't say Peggy's name, but he thought of her as well. Steve's finding and awaking had been gentler than Bucky's, with Steve surrounded by friends – older friends, but friends all the same and determined not to let the years stand in their way. Bucky's finding had been with the enemy, himself one of them... and he didn't deserve friends. Not after what he'd done. Steve was the only one Bucky couldn't deny.

Steve was smiling sadly at him, accepting, yet not leaving it just quite there. "You have friends and a team too, Buck – Fury, SHIELD... they'll take you in as well. You know that." He didn't spell out their friends – they'd already had a few shouting matches on that, with Bucky refusing to see any of them.

"I do." SHIELD would take him in, Bucky knew; though he didn't think their motives quite so altruistic as Steve seemed to believe. Didn't matter, not really. "It can't wash away the blood. Not this soon. I've been surrounded by people who have controlled me for far too long. I need to be alone. Really, truly, alone. Not just up here in a room above a city alone, but without anyone at all anywhere near." 

He smiled at Steve. "They've got these new-fangled things called phones... and radios! Maybe even a telegraph or two still around. Wherever I end up, I bet we can still keep in touch." 

This time when Steve stepped forward, Bucky did so as well. Forty-odd years, and their hugs were still as strong and binding as ever. 

\---  
In another world...  
\--- 

 

"Sam!" Natalie swam out to his rock, her bright red mane waving like algae in the water. 

Rolling over, Sam flicked his wings out and balanced while he got his tail under him. "Hey, Nat. What's up?"

"There's an eddy! They were cleaning one of the bomb sites, and found a current that goes to another world."

Sam blinked. "Whoa. That hasn't happened for a really long time." And the last one had proven not only incompatible but also hostile, disappointing everybody. "Is the new world anything like ours?"

"Breathing and bacteria compatible and similar, so we can go over. The preliminary scout didn't explore fully, but enough to know it's a one-form world. Seems higher on the physics tech side." Natalie twined her much longer body around the rock out-cropping that Sam had been sunning himself on and she leaned around to rest near him. "They're forming a task-group to go through and do more extensive scouting."

"You'll go, of course." Sam was confident of that. Natalie was one of their best. Fighter, infiltrator, explorer... Nat blended and survived, in whatever task she undertook. Now that the long war was over, she was also bored and restless. The hazards of an eddy would matter less to her than the thrill of a new adventure and a chance to use her skills.

"I've already been assigned a slot." Nat abruptly shifted to her human form. To look at, the human form was a slight and small body compared to her sleek dragon majesty, yet the human form was no less formidable. Their enemies had often found that out, to their detriment. Nat used all her shapes to great effectiveness. 

As she was doing now. With those earnest human eyes, and serious face, she let Sam know she was speaking the truth as she said, "I want you to come too." She didn't say anything more, simply watched him, and let him make his decision.

Sam opened his mouth to tell her no, then closed it without saying anything. Riley was gone, destroyed during the war. All of his school were likewise gone. Sam was a lone survivor, and he survived, but some days were harder than others. Much harder than others. A new world... how often did that chance come along?

Nat grinned at him. "Admit it, Sam – you're bored too."

Sam stretched himself, then flicked his tail, launching off the rock. He spread his wings out and caught the air, twisting into a spiral before he turned and dove at the water. "How can I be bored with all this freedom?" He shifted into his smaller fish form just before he hit the surface, gliding smoothly into the waters where he lived.

The dragon quickly caught up then stayed beside him as they swam together to base.

\---  
\---  
\--- 

{seven months later}

Bucky raised the binoculars and tried to focus on the splashing he'd seen in the distance. Water. Water. More water... Ah, there. A splash that wasn't a wave... fish. A fairly large school, it seemed, from all the splashing. Then one jumped out higher and spread its wings... and others followed.

Bucky drew a breath in. It was a school of flying fish. He'd seen them before, yet not often. His boat was on the fringe of their territory, too cold for their warm-water habits, too far away from islands and land, on the outskirts of habitation both human and animal. It was a special treat when he came across anything at all, and especially the flying fish he liked best. Bucky leaned against the railing and settled in to watch. They were swimming close to the surface, jumping in and out of the water, skipping along above the waves before dipping under again only to jump out again. Spreading their fins wide, membranes open, holding them in the air, 'flying' before returning to the sea.

Out in the middle of the ocean was about as far away as it was possible to get, and perfect for what he had wanted all those months ago. Initially, he'd tried a cabin in the woods, but that had gotten old really fast. Sitting around with nothing to do was worse than the city. So he and Steve had tried it again, using both old connections and new to get a SHIELD vessel with a Marine Research job monitoring ocean currents and wildlife. It was remote and away from people, yet still gave him something to do – a mission that he could focus on without losing himself.

Doing his job, Bucky had seen other fish before... but flying fish were special. He really enjoyed the oddness of part-fish, part-bird, and the way they effortlessly flitted from one to the other. The reading he'd done had revealed that their 'wings' were truly fins stretched out to make gliding membranes. Still, even though 'wings' wasn't technically accurate, he was entranced by the mixture of worlds the fish lived in. It gave him hope, to see something enjoying both water and sky, living between the worlds.

Putting down the binoculars, Bucky headed into the cabin. Getting out the wildlife chart, he marked down the presence of the school and the coordinates. He could have left it at that – that's all the researchers asked for. 

Bucky grinned. He never again had to do just what people asked for. Only if he wanted to, and he had the choice of doing more, if he wanted. And this, he wanted. 

Turning the engine on, Bucky maneuvered the boat out far enough to not disturb the school, then paced them for a bit until he had a feel for their direction. Fish weren't like enemy combatants, with a purpose and planned direction... but after all these months, he had a good feel for fish maneuvers. Putting his super-soldier skills to good use. It was nice to be doing something besides murder.

When he was a good range ahead of the school, Bucky cut the engine and went to prepare his lunch.  
The fish were swimming leisurely, scouting for food instead of chasing or being chased, and Bucky could spend a few hours watching them.

Ham and cheese was his sandwich for the day. The supplies he'd stocked were varied, and Bucky had been enjoying making something different every day. So much better than anything he used to have, and honestly, he didn't remember eating much of anything as the Winter Soldier. Feeding the Solder hadn't been the Russians' priority. So sandwiches? In multiple types of meats and cheeses? Pure delight. It reminded him of early times as a normal soldier, when the Commandos would bunk down with regular people still with regular homes, who would feed them regular food. It made him feel like a person again.

Watching from the cabin window in his tall pilot chair, Bucky put his food to one side for the moment so he could use both hands with the binoculars. While he was this far out, he had a better angle on the sightlines from inside rather than out.

The fish were doing their thing. Swimming mostly underwater, with the occasional one jumping out to glide briefly before splashing in again. And then another going out instead. And then a group. And then for awhile they would all be under... then suddenly they would all be out flying together. It was so much fun to watch them.

However, as Bucky kept watching, his heart sank a little. The fish looked like they might be in danger; there was a predator in their midst. Bucky could see the water churning where a larger fish swam with the school. The school didn’t seem to be alarmed, but the size and pattern had Bucky’s hackles raising. He wasn’t, however, here to save fish from nature. He was there to observe. 

Bucky glanced fleetingly at the closet where he had a spear-gun. Taking a life of a predator just being itself, though, didn't appeal to him. He'd had his fill of killing. And who was to say that the predator wasn't worthy of life itself? Everybody survived how they could, it was the way of things, even that of the fish he was watching with such joy. They killed too, just as surely as the predator stalking them. Where did one draw the line on the cycle? If at all. Defense only, was his new motto. Bucky made that decision even as he calculated all the options. He'd toyed with the idea before, but now he actually meant it. At least at this moment.

Eventually the school got close enough that Bucky could put down the binoculars. He picked up his sandwich and headed out to watch from the railing. The inside might be more comfortable, but he loved the outside. Depending on what circuit he was sailing on his route, the weather could be chilly or warm. Right now, he was fairly close to the tropics, it was currently sunny, and there were fish to watch. He went outside. 

Watching from a closer view, the predator, if it was one, didn't seem to be bothering the fish – there had been plenty of time for it to pick off a meal and leave, but it was still shadowing them. Maybe it just wanted some company. 

The most common predators out here were the larger fish in the same tropic regions – tuna, marlin, mahi mahi... but the school would be completely spooked if it was a typical predator, and there was no way one of those would have waited to feed. Fish tended to sort into a prey or predator world, large to small, each being the other to the next size of fish up or down. And they didn’t mix.

Another possibility was it could be a dolphin. That was a species known to be playful, and it certainly was possible… but it probably wasn’t. A dolphin would have surfaced alongside the fish by now. This was something different.

Bucky suspected this was unusual enough that if he could get a good look at what it was, the scientists would want to know. He would document everything anyhow – it was his job – but more than the job, his instincts and winter training were to watch for both patterns and those things that went against the pattern. This was definitely against the pattern.

He leaned against the rail and watched, ignoring the sandwich he still held. Food could wait. This was more interesting.

Instead of taking a path in front of his boat, which Bucky had originally calculated for when he stopped, the school was heading directly for him. He didn't know if he'd somehow mis-read their original path (unlikely, he thought), or if they had changed direction (more likely... but odder). It at least gave him a better chance to watch and observe as they came closer.

Then they were slashing right up to the hull, some fish diving to go under, some stretching out their wings to go over. Bucky would have to check the deck later to make sure they all cleared the boat okay. 

The predator's water pattern abruptly disappeared further out from the boat than the other fish. It probably had gone deeper to clear the keel. Bucky leaned out over the railing to see if he could get another glimpse. Then it was flying up right at him. 

He’d been wrong - it was another flying fish, but a huge one! Three times the size of the others, at least. 

The fish flew by him... then it banked, its wings tilting to angle it around in a curve, flying back at Bucky again. 

Bucky ducked. What the heck? Glider fins couldn’t do that! It was only after the fish dove into the water on the other side of the boat that he realized, “hey, my sandwich!”

\--- 

Just before Sam touched the water, he switched to his mer-form. It was a risk, yet he didn't think the man could get across the ship fast enough to see him. And if he did, it would only have been for a split second, and only his tail, not his human half. 

Not switching would have been a greater risk to the sandwich, vulnerable to the ocean water. 

Sam left the little cousins and made a bee line for his favorite rocky outcrop – a ridge barely breaking the surface, navigation hazard and perfect resting point. It was quite a ways from the boat, closer in towards the mainland, but well out of most human paths. Every moment he swam away from the boat was a moment too long, but he needed this. 

Finally, he saw them. Just before he got to the rocks, Sam swam even faster under the water, building up momentum. Then he broke through the surface and into the sky, spreading his wings to fly higher. Out in the open sky, Sam switched rapidly between his forms, letting go of the sandwich from one form and catching it in the next.

Spreading his wings a little more, Sam glided in gentle circles down to the rocks. He took a moment to make sure his balance was stable with his tail balancing him between the shore and the water. It was easier to land in water in his mer form, and on flat land with his human form, but the rocky outcrop was somewhat between the two. His tail wasn't meant for it, and he didn't want to sprain a human ankle, so caution was the word of the day. When he was sure he wasn't going to slip and fall, he reverently studied the sandwich. He was too hungry to delay it, though, and allowed himself just the one moment to anticipate. Then he bit into pure heaven.

Oh, he'd missed food. 

Real food, that was, not what he could get from the oceans. Civilization had spoiled him. Meat. Cheese. Bread... fluffy, yummy bread. He didn't think he'd ever missed bread so much. 

He tried to make it last, but the sandwich was gone all too quickly. 

Sam licked the crumbs off his fingers and sighed. He wondered if the scientist on the boat had more. Or, well, he could always go to the local remote town and indulge himself, as he sometimes did. But the town... village... was far enough away from the eddy that he didn't like to go very often. (His world would think it large enough for a town or small city. With the size of this world, however, he suspected it was more of the population of a small village instead.)

Sometimes, Sam's life sucked. Here it was, this brand new world – this giant, huge, world, that was simply stunning for its sheer mass and biodiversity. No wonder they were one-forms here – there was more than enough life to fill all the eco-niches needed. This lovely world, full of great places to explore and new things to find... and once they realized the size of it, Carol had decided they needed somebody to stay near the eddy. 

Rolling down onto his chest, Sam raised his tail in the air and spread his wings, not for flight, but simply to warm in the sun.

Eddies were complicated things, not very stable, and not always lasting long. It was always a risk, going through an eddy. There were usually warning signs, however, before an eddy collapsed, closing the pathway between the worlds. He agreed that with the team this spread out, it made sense to have one person stay to watch it. Initially, he'd even been glad of the chance to be completely alone, taking the time to heal his soul some more. 

Now, though, he was just bored, bored, bored.

Except he wasn't alone anymore. Not really...

With a grin, Sam remembered the look on the man's face when he'd stolen the sandwich. Maybe he would go back. Tomorrow. Or the next day. 

It wouldn't be that hard to find the boat again, it had been circling the area almost like it knew where the eddy was. Sam had watched it carefully enough to know it was a coincidence – the human was doing basic research, things much like Sam and his school had done before the war. 

When he'd found the little cousins swimming along, he couldn't resist swimming with them for awhile. They weren't his school – nothing could ever replace his school and the people he had lost. For awhile, though, at least he hadn't been swimming alone.

The sandwich had been an impulse. Sam licked his fingers, chasing the remnants of the taste once more. A really good impulse.

Yes, tomorrow sounded like a fine plan.

\--- 

"You little..." Bucky glanced from his empty hand to the now empty sky. There had been an enormous splash in the water a few seconds after his sandwich had been snatched, but he now knew from experience that there wouldn't be anything to see by the time he got to the railing. 

It was that same damn fish. Five days in a row now. The rest of the school wasn't here anymore, but the huge one with a taste for human food had stuck around. It was company, of a sorts. He had initially wondered about the predator hanging around with the school of flying fish. Now, he wondered about the giant fish hanging around with him. Him... and his sandwiches. 

Bucky supposed he was grateful that it was his food the fish was after, and not himself. In their last chat, Steve had gleefully told him about the latest movie his friends had introduced him to, a horror story about a giant shark that could swallow a boat. Thanks, Steve, thanks a lot. And thanks to Steve's so-called friends as well. 

Getting up from the deck chair, Bucky stretched. It wasn't as warm as when he was closer to the tropics, yet nothing was ever as cold as cryo had been. He took off the seaman's sweater he tended to wear on instinct, even when it was warm, hiding even when there was nothing to hide from. T-shirted and bare-armed, Bucky stretched again. His metal arm glinted in the light, sun reflecting off the plates. In this weather, in the middle of the ocean and no people anywhere around, it almost felt like a normal arm, like a part of him. Not just a killing machine. Almost like _he_ wasn't a killing machine. 

Staring off the boat at the empty water, Bucky thought about how being a predator didn't mean that the predator always killed. He was darned sure that that giant flying fish was no fish, or not only a fish. Bucky had fought against Hydra back in the day. Through the Russians, he had fought for them as well. He'd been experimented upon, he'd seen other experiments. He'd also seen a lot of shit that was something else entirely.

This giant flying fish fell under the 'something else entirely' category. It pinged nearly all of his instincts. And yet... Bucky liked flying fish, especially this one.

Bucky had wiped all mention of the larger than normal flying fish that he had put in the reports that first day and he'd not written another sentence about it. The giant fish was a predator, right enough. And probably wasn't just a fish. Sometimes, though, predators had a choice. And they could choose not to kill.

Sometimes they just stole sandwiches instead.

Bucky turned to the cabin. He needed to make a new lunch for himself. 

\--- 

Sam watched the man as he stretched in elegant exercise patterns on the restricted deck. He didn't wear the bulky top clothing he was normally in, just pants. The exercising had started four days into the sandwich stealing, and had become daily routine. Part of Sam's routine as well now, to watch him. 

It maybe wasn't the smartest thing that Sam had ever done, stalking a human in a strange world. Just because they were one-forms didn't mean these humans weren't dangerous. Sam had been through a war; he knew warriors and he knew who could kill. This man was probably the most deadly person he'd ever met, and that included Natalie. Nat had previously always occupied that rank in his mind, and that had been a great assurance during the war, even as he always lived an inch from death – no enemy would ever be as scary as his best friend. 

Now, he'd finally found somebody even more deadly... and Sam liked him. He liked this quiet, solitary human, sailing alone in the waters of this world. This deadly warrior who carefully scooped any stranded little cousins off his deck and put them back in the water without hurting them. Who let Sam steal his food without ever once getting angry about it.

Oh look, the man was done with exercises and was now making lunch.

Sam grinned. He wasn't really hungry, but Sam thought maybe he would go steal another sandwich.

\--- 

"Hi Steve." Bucky walked as far as the cord on the phone would let him. The biggest advantage of the SHIELD boat that Fury had gotten was this piece of high technology – a phone that he could call Steve on regularly. Not a land phone connected through wires, or even the newer digital version they had. Not even a shortwave radio connection that bounced through operators and relays before getting to its destination. This was a _satellite_ phone that worked in the middle of the ocean. It was the biggest thing inside the cabin – built into the walls with a lot of electronics, feeding to a small satellite dish that rotated until it found the right spot in the sky, sent a connection out... and he and Steve could talk, directly, without operators or interference or him needing to go ashore. He was in the middle of the freaking ocean, and he and Steve could talk regularly. Fury said that someday this would be more common... but for now, Bucky would still be amazed at it. And would talk to Steve when he could. It kept him from missing Steve too much, and kept Steve from coming after him. Steve had needed the reassurance a fair amount in the beginning. 

Some months back, when he'd first come out here alone in the boat, Bucky would call home and on the other side he would hear pain and need in Steve's voice as he answered, desperate for the contact. Separating had been hard for both of them, even if Bucky had known he had to. As the months went on, though, the pain in Steve's voice faded, replaced instead by eagerness and delight. Bucky responded in kind, learning to accept their new reality and his own past and present. 

Bucky was learning to breathe easier, out here in the ocean, and was glad to know Steve was alive and happy.

Outside the cabin, the unending view of the water was his world. Little wavelets always passing by and nothing else to see. Bucky turned around to a different window, to the same view of the ocean. "Yeah, Stevie, I'm doing good." He grinned, laughing a little as he said, "The fish is also good."

"The fish is good." Steve laughed, not understanding. "I would hope the fish are good out there, if only so we can keep your research bosses happy. Anything exciting going on? Any sharks nibbling at the boat?"

Bucky rolled his eyes. "That one is getting old, Steve. Find a new myth to terrorize me with. I hear the deep sea krakens are pretty fierce..."

"Well, you _are_ near some of the deeper trenches that have never been explored..."

With a laugh, Bucky moved to another window and turned to their other usual topic. "How's Peggy?"

"We're good. We're... really good." Steve didn't say anything for awhile, a world of thoughts in that pause. "Is it weird?"

Bucky saw a splash in the water and his heart jumped. He responded to Steve, thinking about their worlds. "It's not weird." 

What was age? Shared life experiences and physical attraction, but Steve had always been more interested in the person than the body, and this was a second chance for him. Steve's challenge had been to get to know the Peggy of now, and not hold to the Peggy he remembered from a couple years ago, forty years ago. The months Bucky had been at sea, Steve had spent taking that time. Peggy also had cautiously, and painfully, reacquainted herself with the person and not the memory. Hearing it all from afar, Bucky was glad for them both. They had never been very traditional anyhow, even when they had been on the same timeline. This reconnection felt right and good.

There was another movement in the water and a familiar fish lifted briefly above the waves. Bucky waved out the window. Speaking of weird.

"Oh, hey, I've also been getting to know Tony, Howard's son."

"The playboy?" Bucky was skeptical. He'd read the newspapers.

"He's not quite so bad as all that. Well... you know what Howard was like."

"Yeah, that's true." Maybe not so far off the branch as it seemed. And they'd been able to work with Howard. Not that kids were their parents. Well, that was Steve's deal, anyhow. Bucky was in the middle of the ocean and wouldn't be meeting him anytime soon. "Tell me about Tony."

As Steve talked, Bucky watched the fish jump up and over the boat, wiggling its fins just as it was in Bucky's main view. He smiled, shaking his head. Somebody wasn't really trying to hide their weirdness, at least not around him. That was no ordinary fish and never had been. It seemed to like him, too. Hanging out, stealing his food, waving hi. Who knew that in the middle of nowhere, that he could actually find a friend?

\--- 

"Hey, Natalie. Sorry, _Natasha_."

"It blends, Sam, it blends. I found a hunter, Sam."

"What sort of hunter?" 

"He's a bit of a klutz, but when he narrows in on a target... oh, you should see him. Carol found one too. I like this world."

"This world has their own wars... but they have their own warriors for them." Sam looked out across the water. "I like it too." 

"You sound more like yourself. Did you find someone?"

Sam laughed. Had he? He hadn't even talked to his friend on the boat. Just stole sandwiches in fish form. "Now how would I do that, stuck way out here in the middle of nowhere, watching an unchanging eddy, not going _anywhere_ interesting at all?" 

"There's my Sam, finally," Natalie said with great satisfaction. "You didn't complain initially. You know, Carol will rotate us if you need a break."

The boat was out there, following the water currents. Sam could swim to it whenever he wanted to. "I'm good here." He changed the subject before Nat could pursue it some more. "How's Pepper? Wanda? Bruce?" It was a measure of how broken he'd been that he hadn't asked about them before. Nat had been filling him in on what was happening... but Sam hadn't asked. He cringed, recognizing it now.

"Pep-Pep is playing a long game. She's working her way into modern society in the West, learning their corporate structure."

"In the cities?" Sam shuddered. That was a lot of people. Nat was blending in the East mostly by moving in their underworlds, their fringes, where she could come and go and not be so remarked on. To blend in a full city, with that many people... "How does she change?"

"Very carefully, I'm told," came Nat's bland reply. "I don't ask for details. Wanda is off wandering in the mountains, causing both chaos and creation on equal levels, far from people." 

Wanda had her own set of hurts she needed to recover from. If that's what it took, Sam was glad she had the space.

"Bruce... Bruce is travelling as a human. He hasn't changed in months."

Sam's mouth dropped open. "That's... Holy crap. That's not good." They were not meant to stay in their other forms for long periods of time. Their central form was what they lived in, and the shift to human or animal form was for interactions between the worlds and hunting or concealment. Their small world was so crowded, all life filled multiple niches, usually three apiece. Yet the other two forms were not meant for long term. Sam could feel it in himself, with how much time he'd spent in the fish form. That's why he spent so much time lounging out on the rocks in his natural mer form. But Bruce... "How is he not changing?" By all rights, that shouldn't be possible.

"I don't know. And it's troubling. Carol has threatened to send him back through the eddy if he won't shift for at least some of the time."

Sam waited, he knew there was more. Natalie shrugged, a long undulation of her mane along her neck, rippling through the mist of communication. "She won't. Bruce won't survive if he goes back. His only hope is here. But we're all worried."

"Yeah. Tell him..." Sam paused for a long, long moment. Then he sighed. "Tell him I understand. But for pity's sake, just change already."

"I'll tell him," Nat promised. "Sam... I'm glad you're back."

\--- 

Bucky counted his supplies again and laughed. He was going to have to go into dock early. Sharing his sandwiches had taken its toll. He hoped they would have enough local food for him to restock, since the supplies Fury had arranged wouldn't be there for another month. Well, he would manage. He and the fish.

\--- 

That was different. Sam watched the boat leave the patterns it had been travelling and headed on a different route at a faster speed than it normally used. Heading for the warmer currents. Leaving? The man had done everything the same yesterday. Gave him a sandwich. 

Sam swallowed. Well, maybe he would ask for that rotation. If the human wanted to leave...

He should find out what was happening, at least, before making a decision. Sam swam under water, pacing the boat for awhile. Nat had sent renderings of the world with eco and civ mapping. Depending on where the man was going, Sam could... oh. He didn't need the mapping. Sam knew this route. The man was going to the other humans, closest to them but still some distance. Sam had been there a few times himself before he'd started getting his food from the boat. It would be nice to drop by again.

That thought startled Sam – he'd thought his visits had been purely practical, his brief socializations more about necessity and gathering data then actually being engaged. However, thinking about them now, Sam realized he really did want to – and not simply to follow the man on the boat. 

Practically, however, he couldn't just leave because he wanted to. He was here for a reason. Sam flicked his tail and sped down through the water, to the shimmer and displacement that was not natural in any world. He didn't approach too closely; he didn't want to accidentally go back home. He activated the monitoring pods set up around the eddy, and ran through their readings of the last several days, looking for anything in flux. There wasn’t anything out of place in the history. Watching the patterns of the eddy carefully, everything was rhythmic and patterned, flowing evenly with a bare hint of the universe's colors. He finally decided that the eddy was stable enough. Sam could afford to spend a few days out of range for another quick trip. 

\--- 

The first thing on the 'to do' list after docking alongside the local fishing boats was to head out to the local bathhouse to get clean with fresh water. There weren't a lot of characteristics that Bucky felt he had in common with his original self, other than their friendship with Steve, yet at moments like this, he could recall the pleasure of being well put together just for its own sake. Dating and dancing wasn't always about the company, but sometimes simply for the pleasure of doing it. Right now, being clean just for the sake of being clean was enough.

In the small town, there was only one real equivalent to what Bucky generally knew as a diner. A place where people gathered outside their homes for food and drink. It may not be New York subs, but the food was tasty and people familiar in their humanity. Early evening had come while he was slucing the salty ocean off himself, and people were gathering for their dinners, talking about their days, and the local news and gossip. He'd been there a couple of times, for his other resupplies, and they remembered him, giving him slight nods in acknowledgement as he came in, but otherwise leaving him mostly alone, as he wanted. They still, though, let him fit into their ebb and flow, accepting his remoteness as a part of the community. He appreciated that.

They even freed up a table for him on one side of the room, and Bucky paused before accepting. It was generosity to a stranger, a seaman, not a trap. He had to stop thinking like that. And it was stereotypical, he knew, but he couldn't help feeling just a little more relaxed with his back to a wall and only an empty corridor between him and the next section. He could see everybody... and they knew it. They let him be. 

Bucky ordered the equivalent of a sandwich, thinking of his fish with a slight smile. A large meal was tempting, but he'd been eating a very bland diet for a long time and had learned his lesson on not being cautious with a return to spices and other foods. Then he settled in to wait, observing the people and their interactions. 

From his back table, Bucky had a good view as people came in. Most were locals, a couple stranger seamen like himself. Then a new person came in. Not one of the locals, not a seaman. Well, not obviously a seaman. The new man stepped to one side of the door and looked around the room before venturing any further. Trim and strong, with defined muscles across the pectorals on the chest, in a way that spoke of regular training. His eyes panned across from not just person to person but also checking up and to each point where vision was obstructed from the doorway. It spoke of the same sort of experience Bucky had known; he'd done exactly the same thing. Nobody else had.

In their drift across the room, those careful eyes met his... and the newcomer grinned. It was a smile of recognition and delight, even as his posture turned loose and easy. A friend, recognizing and greeting somebody they knew.

Bucky had no idea who this person was. He may not have all his memories back from the time the Russians had brainwashed him, but there wasn't even a _hint_ of familiarity in this. Also, people who recognized him usually reacted in fear of the Winter Soldier, not delight. Unless your name was Steve, which he really didn't think so.

"Sam!" 

At the call, the newcomer turned to the owner/cook, his grin of recognition fading to a questioning smile. He was known here, and his name was Sam, apparently.

The cook folded his arms across his chest. "I've told you before, Sam. No shoes, no shirt, no service."

Sam glanced down at himself, and so did Bucky. It somehow hadn't struck Bucky as odd, that the guy wasn't wearing a shirt. Even as he'd been evaluating his muscled chest, all that had been on his mind had been evaluating him for danger. Now... now, Bucky appreciated the naked chest for a little more than just the danger. The man was bare-chested, though he had a metal belt around his waist, and a metal bracelet and rings on his right hand, so he wasn't without resources. The bracelet and three rings were connected with chains going between them. Not fancy, just simple metal, plain and somehow utilitarian. It made for an interesting effect. Not a local custom... it looked more like panja style, though Sam probably wasn't from India, and Bucky had never seen one that wasn't designed for style – or for someone besides a woman, for that matter.

"I just don't understand why? It's not like my bare feet are tracking in anything different than everybody else is. And a shirt makes no difference in anything but aesthetics. It certainly doesn't matter for eating." Sam's voice didn't seem to be mocking; it sounded like a very real, genuine question.

The chef rolled his eyes in exasperation. A teenager sitting with a group of friends quietly got up and headed past Bucky to a set of stairs out of the general dining area. "The feet aren't for _us_ , it's for _you_ , so you don't cut yourself on anything and bleed all over the place, or stub your toe and whine about it."

Sam looked extremely dubious at this logic. 

Bucky figured if the guy had walked all over the outside in bare feet, inside probably wouldn't matter. Soles toughened the more they weren't protected. He tilted his head at the thought, mentally adjusting that to souls and wondering if the same held true.

Shaking his head, the chef laughed. "I suppose we should be grateful you're at least wearing pants this time."

Bucky blinked. Then he took a closer look at the pants Sam was wearing. "Hey, those are my pants." He recognized the really horrible job of mending one of the legs he'd done the other month when he'd torn them. He hadn't used them again since. One would have thought sewing would be a skill he would have picked up somewhere, at the least in the early poverty days when everything had to be saved... but no, apparently not. If he'd had it at some point, he'd totally lost it since.

Sam looked over and grinned, that same, easy expression, this time mixed with a bit of mischief. "You weren't using them. Didn't think you'd mind."

Bucky waved a hand, he most certainly didn't. Although now he was slightly sorry to have missed an additional spectacle, apparently. "You could have grabbed a shirt while you were at it." 

"They're all different – I couldn't tell which you would miss or not."

It occurred to Bucky somewhat belatedly that normal people would probably be upset at strangers rummaging through their things. It didn't really matter to him, though. He'd lived for so long with only what he was assigned as the Soldier, with no privacy given or expected. He knew he'd had a life before then, but some things were harder to adjust back to than others. This was apparently one of them.

The teenager who had slipped away came back with a shirt and flipflops. He handed them to Sam with an expression of awe and wonder. "For you..."

"Thanks." Sam took them with an expression of resignation. He slipped on the flipflops and pulled the shirt over his head. He reached into a pouch he wore on the side of his belt and handed the youngster some stones. "I have no idea if these are worth anything or not... I tried to find odd and unusual ones. Or just cool looking rocks. So, well... if you don't want these, I can always get more fish."

"No, no..." the young man stammered, looking at the stones in his hand and glancing up at Sam, then away again. "This is wonderful. Thank you."

There was a brief pause, then the youngster slipped away back to his seat where his tablemates leaned in around him with an increase of volume and excited murmurings. 

Sam watched after him for a moment with an expression that was somewhere between amused and resigned. Then he turned to the owner, "Hey – your fish, by the way, are out on the dock. I didn't know if they'd fit through the door."

All sound in the small diner paused for a moment where Bucky where pretty darn sure all of them were thinking the same exact, _what the hell, just how large are those fish anyhow?_ thoughts. Then there was a mass exodus out the door heading towards the docks. 

Bucky stayed in his seat, the cook stayed at his station, and the youngster and a couple others stuck around. Not many others. 

Sam raised one elegant dark eyebrow. 

The cook shrugged. "They'll be fair about it. Sit yourself down, Sam, and I'll get right to you."

With a smile, Sam bypassed the other tables and headed right for Bucky. "Hey."

There was something oddly familiar about this guy, even beyond the fact that he seemed to know Bucky. Bucky nodded. "Hi," he responded cautiously.

Sam hovered a moment more, then asked, "Can I join you?" He put a hand on the chair across from Bucky to indicate what he meant, while still carefully waiting for Bucky's answer.

There wasn't really any reason to say no, and Bucky was curious. "Sure."

Pulling the chair out, Sam hesitated before sitting. He turned to cast an eye around the diner and Bucky followed his gaze. It was mostly empty now, but plates and drinks showed how many people were going to be back soon. When Sam faced Bucky again, the smile had mostly dropped off his face and there was a noticeable tension in his body as he sat down.

Sat down... with his back to everybody in the whole place, Bucky realized. He recognized that tension. Though he wouldn't have been glancing upward as Sam did. 

Bucky stood up himself and moved his chair around slightly until his back was more towards the empty corridor that led to the stairs. He sat again and motioned to a spot about 30 degrees from him, which was still partially exposed to the main room, but had decent wall coverage for a reasonable amount of space. 

Sam's eyebrows darted up in surprise, and then lowered in gratitude as the smile came back with an extra degree of warmth and appreciation. He moved his chair around to where Bucky had indicated. He had to turn his head a little to face Bucky directly, and Bucky the same, but that was better than either of them with backs exposed. 

"I'm Sam," Sam said, holding his hand out.

Bucky glanced again at the bracelet and rings that Sam wore, then held out his own hand. He was glad, as he always was, that it was his flesh and blood hand for shaking and not the metal one. "Yeah, got that. You seem to be well known around here."

Sam held the grip a little longer than just politeness level, even as his expression tightened a little. "I... don't come by often, but I made a bit of a splash when I first arrived."

The cook stopped by their table with a glass of water he put in front of Sam. "He rescued one of our boats and everybody on board when it capsized during a freak storm. And a few more people who also had been in trouble. We're grateful." His eyes conveyed to Bucky that they would also defend Sam if anybody threatened him. "Do you two know each other?"

Bucky raised his own eyebrow at Sam, curious to what the answer would be.

"I've seen him around at sea," Sam replied with a laugh. "Not sure what his name is, though..." He trailed off in question, looking at Bucky curiously.

Okay, there were a few other boats that sometimes passed Bucky's general route. But he had a good memory for faces and didn't recollect Sam's. Other than that odd familiarity. And, oops, he hadn't responded to Sam's introduction. Bucky bit his lip in chagrin. He might be a little out of touch with the world, but he hadn't mucked up an exchange that badly since he was 14 and the local beauty had tried to say hi. He guessed that's kind of what had happened here too. "Bucky," he mumbled. "I'm Bucky."

The owner's attention went to him sharply. Bucky could feel a few people around him also sharpening their ears.

He sighed. "My _given_ name is James," the name that was on all the paperwork he filled out for docking and getting the supplies, "my friends call me Bucky." Friend. Well, friends, if he would ever let himself talk to the Commandos again. The idea was a little less painful than it had been a few months ago. Maybe.

The owner relaxed, nodding, and returned his attention to Sam. "Do you want anything besides water? Soda, juice, drink?"

Sam picked up the water and sipped from it, making a pleased sound after. "I don't understand why any of you want something other than fresh water. This is _wonderful_ water. Totally fresh, not a hint of salt in it. Sure, it's been processed, and there's a lingering taste of some of that, but that only makes sense considering what all lives in water. This is _safe_ water, and probably from the surface – ground water, or a rare stream, or rain-fall. Not converted from the sea. This water is delicious!"

Both Bucky and the owner stared at Sam. When his speech was done, and he was drinking the water again with apparent sincere enjoyment, they looked at each other. The owner again warned Bucky silently not to hurt Sam, in word or deed. An unspoken, 'Yes, that was weird; but he's ours anyhow'. Bucky spread his hands a little, in a useless display of good intent. "Can I get a water too?" With a shake of his head that wasn't a denial, the owner left, returning to the cooking zone.

Bucky returned his attention to Sam, who was grinning at him. The twerp knew just how his little speech had sounded. Meant every word of it, that was sure, but also knew that it wasn't 'normal' for where they were. 

Sam shrugged, his fingers tapping against the glass. "It's not worth it to try and blend in. I probably would switch to blending if there was a stranger around, but there's not. So I'll just be me instead."

The mystery deepened. And there was already a mystery following Bucky around the ocean. What were the odds they weren't connected? No strangers around, indeed. Bucky didn't mind mysteries. They were more his norm than not. And this was a friendly one, and interesting. 

"Sounds like a good way to be," Bucky replied to the final statement, a little hesitantly. He could accept it fine for Sam, and was even enjoying the beginnings of this. Yet, Bucky had no idea who he himself actually was, between the war, the brainwashing, and the forty years later thing. With that one simple statement from Sam, though, Bucky felt that at least he didn't have to try and be somebody else. Not for Sam. If Sam could deal with it, Bucky could try to not pretend.

Sam's nod was serious, responding to the deeper hints of Bucky's mood. Sam probably could see the same things in Bucky that Bucky could see in him. Things that weren't in anybody else in this room. There had been a war, long enough for each of them that the reflexes had dug their way in deep and were part of them now. Sam's included scanning the skies, Bucky's included checking every glint of metal he saw. 

"Your vessel doesn't look like a fishing boat, and you're obviously not driving around in circles for pleasure... what are you researching?" Sam propped an elbow on the table and leaned towards Bucky for the answer.

Bucky supposed the term would be 'driving' and not 'sailing' since he didn't have sails on the boat. It was, however, a bit oddly phrased. And proved that Sam really had been watching him, with Bucky unaware. Strangely, Bucky wasn't upset by this. It was part and parcel of his life. He was surprised he hadn't seen Sam... but he was mostly intrigued and curious. 

"I'm doing ocean current studies, evaluating the flora and fauna outside of the warm water eddies, away from the islands. Lots of studies have been done close to land. Fewer further out where there's less."

Bucky saw Sam give a startled twitch as he mentioned the warm water, and he wondered about it, but Sam settled back quickly enough, still with the attentive look for the rest of Bucky's now routine spiel.

"It's not..." Leaving off the spiel, Bucky tried to be real. Something a little more for Sam, for himself. He paused, thinking of how to say it. "I'm not a scientist. I'm doing it for them, but it's not me. Not my main..." His main skill was killing people. Bucky winced. "I'm just..."

"Resting," Sam put in, filling in the trail off. "Being away. Nowhere with the associations, yet with something to do."

They met each other's gazes with absolute harmony. Yeah, both of them. Bucky had known it. He drew a long breath in and nodded. Sam smiled, this time with the tinge of memory and sadness.

At the door, there was a sudden increase in volume and traffic as people flooded back in, most talking excitedly to each other.

"What were they?" the cook asked, back at his station and that role again.

"Two giant mahi-mahi and a swordfish. Gutted and cleaned. The swordfish definitely wasn't fitting through the door. They're being taken to the storeroom."

Another thought suddenly struck Bucky and he glanced across the room at the people talking, then back to Sam. They didn't usually speak English here. Well, they did to him, and to other strangers, but not to each other. He spoke a little of the local language but not fluently. Yet he was understanding them fine. And they _weren't_ speaking English – their mouths weren't moving in the right patterns. If Bucky paid attention, it was similar to watching a dubbed movie. 

When there were already weird things happening, it was more logical for it to all be the same weird instead of multiple different things. 

"Oh good," Sam murmured quietly. "I got it right that time."

Bucky made an inquiring noise and then took a sip of his beer, keeping himself from saying anything else. 

"The fish. Once I brought back something they were horrified over. Apparently it was endangered or sacred or something." Sam shrugged. "It was a fish. I don't know. I've been watching more carefully, and I tried to get the common things this time." He let a little bit of hardness show. "Plus, these fish were eating the little cousins. It's natural, but all the same, there's some satisfaction in bringing them in."

"Little cousins?" Bucky had to ask. Yes, that was how it translated. Sam's mouth didn't match the words either, though it was different than the others.

"You know, the school of fish you like to follow? The ones at the surface of the water, jumping in and out?"

"The flying fish?"

Sam laughed. "That's a very descriptive name. Flying fish, I like it." Sam actually enunciated out the words that time, trying them in the English Bucky had spoken them in.

Bucky narrowed his eyes a little and thought he would try something. "There's a larger 'cousin' that sometimes schools with them as well. I would be very, very upset if something were to happen to that fish."

"Would you now?" Sam said, a smile on his lips and laughter in his eyes and a softening all around. 

"I would," Bucky declared firmly, trying desperately not to grin in response to Sam's unspoken laughter. He really would. He liked that fish. Liked him a lot. His gaze rested on Sam and he wondered.

The cook came over and put a plate in front of Sam. "For you, Sam." He looked over at Bucky defiantly, "Your food will be right out." He put a glass of water in front of Bucky, then left again.

Bucky stared at the food in front of Sam. He glanced over at the cook, then back at the food. That was his order. Every part of it was what he had ordered, including the wrap around the meat to mimic a sandwich. 

He raised his eyes to Sam, who had also been looking back and forth. "That was quicker than normal," Sam said mildly, while at the same time his lips twitched up. Sam fixed on Bucky and then picked up the sandwich and took a bite. "Um! That's good!"

Bucky couldn't believe this. "Sam, did you just..." he couldn't quite say it.

Sam put the food down and pressed his lips together, holding in amusement. Then he spoke carefully, finishing Bucky's sentence, "...steal your sandwich?"

As soon as he finished saying it, Sam busted up laughing. Within seconds, Bucky had joined him. They laughed and laughed, sharing a joke that absolutely nobody else would get at all. There were tears in their eyes by the time the chortles slowed down, but it only took meeting the other's gaze to set them off again. 

It took them awhile to get to the point where Sam could eat again. He carefully cut the sandwich in not quite equal parts and pushed the lesser half of it over to Bucky.

"Very generous of you," Bucky remarked dryly. All the same, he claimed his food quickly before Sam could steal it back.

"I know. I'm a very generous person," Sam said smugly, "all my friends say so."

Before Bucky could quip a reply, the smile dropped off Sam's face. He turned his gaze to the empty wall over Bucky's shoulder and took a breath in. 

The immediate instinct was to stay silent, not to remark, not to draw attention. To note this point of weakness and study it. A deeper, older instinct that had been long buried over-rode the other. "Your friends?" Bucky asked carefully, softly. 

Sam took a careful drink of his water. "Most of them died in the war. My best friend – she's still around, they couldn't kill her. But my partner..." Sam's inhale was of so much not spoken around that title, "...my partner, my school..." Sam sighed. "I made new friends. I always do. But." Sam stared at the wall again. "We won the war, but it was at a heavy cost."

Bucky understood perfectly. He flexed his metal hand and wondered if he would ever stop thinking of the cost of it. "My friends won the war after I was captured. I never saw most of them again." That was, perhaps, an oversimplification, but it would do for now. 

With that thought came a realization that he wanted more conversations with Sam. He wanted to be able to let this part go for awhile and then pick it up again days later. To have weeks to carefully explore. Not everything had to be done at once... and he wanted the time to be able to do it later.

Sam's hand came over to cover his – the metal one. Sam traced the fingers carefully with his own, then wound them together. 

Bucky left his metal hand in Sam's, and raised the other to take another bite of the sandwich. 

\---

They were kicked out of the restaurant. Sam had to laugh. It wasn't actually due to their antics, though between him and Bucky, they weren't a very quiet pair. It was because everybody had work to do in the morning and wanted to close up. As entertaining as he and Bucky had been to those watching (and trying not to be obvious about the watching), there came a point where the yawns overtook the interest.

Sam and Bucky walked to the docks together. Sam had been oh, so right about this human, and in ways he'd never even imagined. The ocean called, yet he didn't want to end their time together yet. 

Alongside Bucky's boat, they stopped. Sam glanced at the end of the pier where he could dive off and regain his natural form in his natural environment. He didn't move away.

Bucky put his hand on the dock line holding his ship steady. He looked up at the gunwale. Not looking at Sam, he asked in a low, barely heard, voice, "Come aboard?" He followed that up with a clearing of his throat, and an added, "I have some beer. Or, well, more water, I guess."

Sam broke out in a grin. Bucky felt the same way. "Yes." Sam took a slight step forward, then paused. This was Bucky's world, and he probably didn't share often. "Yes, please," he reiterated, slightly softer.

He felt rewarded when Bucky turned his pale face towards Sam and smiled, the moon's light catching on the pearl white teeth. 

"Last one on board is a fish," Bucky smirked, then crouched and jumped up, landing on the gunwale with an easy balance. 

Sam wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't think any of the townspeople could have done that. Or that Bucky would have done it in front of any of them. That move was for Sam. Briefly, Sam thought about switching and using his wings to fly up. This wasn't the right moment for that, though. With a laugh, he took a moment to settle into the human form and give himself the power he'd need. Then he followed Bucky's move, landing easily on the railing near the other man.

Bucky nodded in approval, then lightly hopped down into the boat and moved towards the cabin. 

Willingly, Sam followed his friend.

\---

Sam woke with the disconcerting feeling of being out of world. Wait, he was out of world. And out of the sea, and in human form, and on a mattress with bedding atop him. Without opening his eyes, he mentally sent a quick search around the confined area. Immediately, he got a sense of the human he followed around the sea. Bucky. Grinning, he sat up and looked for his friend.

Bucky was getting dressed, putting pants on with a careful economy of movement. He stopped after the pants and turned to Sam. "Sorry, was trying not to wake you."

"This bed is nowhere big enough for that," Sam laughed. He admired the view in front of him for a good long moment, then glanced at the window. The sky was a grey-ish blue, lightening in stages yet still pre-dawn. This world had such long sunrises and sunsets, an effect of how large it was. Sam rather enjoyed watching them. "A little early?" In the sea, he didn't usually see Bucky out on the boat until after the colors appeared. Of course, Bucky could have been up earlier and not gone outside. He would feel silly if that was normal.

"Gotta go into town before they all get busy. Gotta get supplies." Bucky tilted his head and rested one hand on his hip. "Somebody ate all of mine."

Sam had noticed in the restaurant that Bucky's motions were all very deliberate. If he wasn't thinking about what he was doing, he was usually very still, blending in with whatever his background surroundings were. Once Bucky was in motion, however, he was elegant and beautiful, a deadly dancer with his grace and power. Sam grinned at Bucky's snark. "Really? Somebody did that? I can't believe you let them!"

"I can't believe it either," Bucky murmured, sounding just a shade too serious for real snippiness, and his smile was both warm and depreciating. 

They each had their own issues, which was why they got along so well. With a yawn, Sam looked around and spotted his controller on a small table next to the bed. Good. He'd not paid it much attention last night, but his instincts apparently were still trained right, keeping it close. Sam picked it up and put it on, drawing the rings secure before snapping the wristlet snug. He closed his hand, turning the controller on.

Instantly, he was bombarded with signals. Sam sat bolt upright, worried. What had he missed...?

"What?" Bucky was crouched, a knife in his flesh hand, his metal arm curved around for either protection or destruction. He was looking towards the wall Sam was facing.

"Messages," Sam replied briefly. "Not here. I'm checking them." The last only had Nat's worried self looking for Sam. That wasn't helpful. He went back through in original order. Oh. "Oops."

The knife was still in Bucky's hand, but he relaxed out of his combat pose. "What?" This time, he sounded a little more amused, and he turned to look at Sam.

Sam sighed. He wiggled his fingers, turning the controller to rest mode. "Apparently I went off comms last night. My friends got worried when they couldn't reach me. No emergency."

Bucky snorted and the knife finally disappeared. Sam didn't quite see where it had gone. "Your friends like to keep close tabs on you?" His gaze rested on the controller on Sam's hand, but he didn't ask.

"Nat goes off comms all the damn time," Sam complained. "Literally. All the time. Yet the one time I do it, she gets hysterical."

Bucky leaned against the closet. "One time? You've never been out of contact before?"

"Er," Sam could suddenly see how that might have been just a little alarming. Particularly for the person who was supposed to be watching the eddy. He sighed. "I better contact them back."

"Before they come looking?"

They would. Sam frowned. He didn't really want to stop his time with Bucky just yet. Well, no reason he had to, really. First, though, he held up his hand with the controller on it and watched Bucky's gaze follow the motion. "You're not asking?"

The corners of Bucky's mouth turned upwards in almost, but not quite, a full smile. "You've been dropping bread crumbs since I first met you. If you're trying to hide all you are, .... but you're not trying. You're playing. And, well, I don't mind." He stopped leaning on the wall and stepped towards Sam. He started to reach his hand out, and then halted the motion as if he wasn't sure if he should.

More of that body stillness. Sam finished the reach for him and tangled his unadorned fingers with the fingers of the flesh hand. He wondered if the 'first met you' was just in human form or counted sea time as well. That was a nicely ambiguous statement. 'Bread crumbs' was obscure, but context gave him the basic meaning; clues, hints.

Bucky looked at their clasped hands and didn't try to disentangle them. "I figure if I ask, you might answer, you might not... and if I don't ask, I might find out later, or I might not. Same results, just different ways of getting there. Asking too much of you is an interrogation, not an interaction."

This human was a true delight. Sam was enchanted with that response. He brought Bucky's hand in closer and leaned over, pressing his lips against the knuckles. When he finally let go, he left his mouth in position for a moment more. 

Bucky didn't pull his hand back immediately, and when he did, he flexed the hand carefully, like he did the metal one sometimes, but also unlike that. There was a smile that made it up to crinkles around his eyes. Sam liked making Bucky smile.

"You better call your friends." Bucky returned to the current problem. "I can go out, if you need to talk to them in private." He stepped back and grabbed a random shirt out of a drawer.

'Call' was an interesting word choice. Translation was based on meanings and intent more than literal words, so the meaning got through, but Sam was also trying to learn the actual language and was paying attention to the specifics. It hadn't mattered while he was just swimming around in the sea, but if he was going to be out with Bucky and not just in this town where he was known, he needed speech of his own. 

He ran his thumb across the fore-ring and put in a query for Natalie. After a moment, he also requested full connection and he raised his hand so it could form. "You can stay." He wanted Bucky to stay.

Bucky watched as the mist rose from Sam's hand and then moved a little ways out between them. He narrowed his eyes and shifted into defense position, but didn't bring out the knife again. Instead, the shirt stayed in his hand, now a potential useful thing instead of just an item of clothing. Sam was fairly sure that Bucky didn't _really_ think the mist was a threat, but Bucky also was just naturally cautious. Sam approved.

The mist formed into a picture of Natalie, however she also sent out a mental request to hold off speech. She was in the middle of talking, and not to him.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Nat stood up, her skirt settling around her. "I will be right back. My colleague will continue."

"I will?" A startled voice asked. The mist expanded slightly to show a young man with yellow hair and pale skin – as pale as Nat's human form – looking at her in surprise. Then he turned to the others in the room with determination. "I will."

Nat strode out of the room, the visual following her. She went down a hallway to a retiring room – some things were universal in most worlds. She pulled off her gloves, revealing her own controller. Then with a gesture, she blocked mental and other sensual access to the room. 

"Sam! What is wrong?! Are you okay?! What---" Nat's voice and thoughts abruptly cut off as she narrowed her eyes. She had activated the projection on her end and could now see Sam in all his human form disarray.

Sam waved his other hand. "Hi Nat. Sorry for worrying you. Nothing's wrong."

Nat stepped closer, the mist moving her image as well. She looked Sam up and down, her eyebrows raising as she lingered on the sheet pooling around his waist. "Apparently not..." Then she looked around, raising her hand and the mist image turning in the air. 

When Nat faced Bucky, Bucky gave a little wave of his own, with the flesh hand. He'd stuffed his metal arm and shoulder into the shirt, somehow making it look as if he was simply mid-dress and not hiding something. 

"Nat, Bucky. Er, James. Bucky, this is Nat. Er, Natasha."

Bucky gave a greeting, that translated as 'hello' but wasn't the same as what he'd used before. Sam tilted his head and listened, realizing it was in the same language as Nat had been using where she was.

Nat returned the greeting, then faced Sam again. "Nothing wrong at all, I can see." She grinned. "Middle of the ocean, and still you manage."

Sam leaned back in the bed and stretched, smug and proud. 

Nat laughed. "Fine. I'll contact Carol and let her know everybody can stand down. But you _owe_ me for this, and tell me next time you want to go off comms."

"You told Carol?" Sam gulped. Nat was the most dangerous person he knew... but Carol was Team Leader. She could reassign him or send him back if she thought he would endanger the mission or the world. Plus, he'd gotten in trouble with her before they'd ever left home. Sometimes his sense of humor wasn't appreciated by everybody.

Natalie put her hands on her hips and frowned at him. "Honestly, Sam! You _went off comms_. Everybody knew within a few hours. Didn't take me telling anybody for that."

"You go off comms all the time!"

"Yes, and I always tell Carol before I do!" 

Bucky cleared his throat and they turned to him. "In Sam's defense, it wasn't planned."

They both raised near equal eyebrows of amused inquiry, asking for clarification. Sam and Nat spent way too much time around each other. Riley used to joke that they were twins from different mothers. The familiar loss hit Sam, then he drank in the presence of Bucky and it didn't hurt less, but it was buffered. 

Bucky huffed. "Being off comms, it wasn't planned. We were just talking."

"Talking..."

"We really were," Sam injected. He'd tried the beer and they'd been comparing alcohol types and... well, it went on from there.

"And, well, then he shoved me. And I punched him back. And, uh,"

"And then there was tickling," Sam had to put in, laughing.

"We are not talking about the tickling," Bucky said firmly. He hadn't believed he was ticklish. Sam had proven otherwise. Bucky still thought he somehow cheated.

Nat raised her hand. "Never mind. I think I can figure it out from there." She laughed. "Not planned." 

Bucky and Sam looked at each other, grinning with the rest of the memories.

"Well, now that you know it _might_ happen, still let me know, even if it's hours before, or two seconds of a ping."

That translated and didn't translate at the same time. "Ping?" Sam asked. 

"Radar. Sonar. Physics tech that alerts when something is approaching," Nat explained. "I meant just send me a signal, doesn't have to be a whole conversation."

Sam nodded. He could do that. But still. "You don't tell me when you're going off..." 

Nat huffed. "I tell Carol. Honestly, Sam, would you rather tell Carol than me? That's fine too."

"No, no, that's okay," Sam hurriedly. "I just... you're off comms a _lot_." He hadn't actually realized how much it bothered him until now. Maybe it hadn't originally. There was a lot in the beginning that hadn't bothered him at all.

With a sigh, Nat held up the gloves she'd taken off. "The controllers don't blend. It's hard to get away with wearing them sometimes. Everybody has had that problem."

Bucky cleared his throat and they turned to him. "You've probably already figured this... but to my eyes, they look rather like jewelry that's common in India, called panja. If you put more, uh, if you made them look fancier, and threw in some other Indian clothing like their shawls, it could be a traveler’s fancy or a style. Otherwise... can you lose the chains between them? That's what draws most of the notice, not the rings or bracelet."

Nat stilled her body except for a slight ruffling of her hair, a motion so slight no normal human should notice. Some things about their main forms occasionally came through, and Sam paid as much attention to her hair in human form as he would to her mane in dragon form. Nat was evaluating his Bucky with a warrior's intense scrutiny. 

Returning the evaluation, Bucky looked more bored, or tired, than anything. Sam was sure that didn't mean he wasn't picking up on everything there was to be seen. 

"You like them dangerous," Nat finally said, mostly approving.

Bucky finished pulling the long-sleeved shirt on over the rest of his body. That left his metal hand exposed, but he had relaxed again. "I'd say rather that Sam is not scared of dangerous things. That means we can get closer to him than probably we should."

"Humm, okay, that's accurate," Nat agreed. She smiled, one of her blindingly attractive grins. "I have to get back before Clint blows the whole thing. Tell me more of your... talking... later, boys."

As she walked out of the room, the mist holding her image dissipated, leaving them in theirs.

Bucky stared at the spot it had been for a little longer before switching that gaze to Sam. He didn't look unsettled by what he'd just seen, merely thoughtful.

This was going so much better than Sam had ever dreamed of. His human in a boat was more than he'd had a right to expect, and even Nat approved. It would probably all come crashing down on him at some point, but for the moment, Sam was deliriously happy.

Bucky started to smile as well. "You're cute."

"Cute?" Sam was startled and a little indignant. He wasn't 'cute'.

"Uh huh." Bucky looked him up and down and nodded decisively. "Yeah, cute."

"I'm not cute."

Bucky just grinned, that one curve of his mouth higher than the other side, the eye also crinkling with the laugh lines. "It's the truth, face it, Sammy."

Sam huffed. Dropping an argument he wasn't going to win, he got out of bed and stretched. "Have you seen my sash?"

"The belt?" Bucky took a few steps over to the other side of the room and rummaged in their discarded clothes. He picked out the sash and handed it over.

Putting it on, Sam touched the sides and directed it for surface wear. The sides of the sash grew out and draped down to his knees.

Bucky jumped back as the sash expanded and then he shook his head. "You are going to keep me on my toes."

Context, Sam reminded himself, and didn't glance toward Bucky's feet. "Your world specializes in physics technology, mathematics and logic. My world developed mostly along mental and biological tech. Partly because of our resources." He ran his hands along the sash. "Other places want what our planet gives us, and this was not our first war from people trying to get what would do them no good." 

Bucky considered that for a moment, then replied in very different lines than what Sam had been expecting. "You know, last night when the cook was thankful you were wearing pants, I was picturing you naked. Not in a skirt." He paused, "Er, kilt?"

Sam laughed. "External genitalia make that rather impractical. It's not the universe's most intelligent design."

"Not going to argue with you there," Bucky replied, chuckling while wincing a little.

They went up top, Sam detouring briefly for a quick sandwich while Bucky laughed at him. 

"You want to come along?" Bucky asked as they moved to the pier. Some of the other ships and people were starting to stir now. 

Sam shook his head. He didn't think it would do Bucky any good for Sam to be so obviously with him during mundane activities. The people here were used to Sam, but they didn't quite think of him as a person. "I'm going for a swim." Actually, he probably should head out again, after he did some chores for the locals. "I'll see you in the open waters."

He walked to the end of the pier and dove off, shifting as he entered the water, his upper half staying mostly the same human shape but a little larger and tougher skinned and the wings emerging on his back (folded in for protection in the dive), the lower half merging and elongating into his tail. The sash and controller automatically absorbed into him, part of their unique properties with their main forms.

He surfaced and turned to look back. Bucky was standing on the end of the pier, watching him. There was a look of wonder on his face. Sam winced a little. He'd gotten used to the general acceptance of his human, so different than the awe the townspeople held for him. He forced a grin. "What do you think?"

A few other people had come out from their ships to watch. Bucky was the only non-local here, and Sam wasn't worried about the others.

The wonder on Bucky's face slipped into a fond smile. "Yeah, yeah. But I was expecting a fish!"

In that moment, Sam knew it would be all right. The grin became more real and he stretched, reaching upwards with his tail pushing him out of the water. As he got to his upper height, Sam bent backwards, curving down towards the water hands in first, head dipping under as his tail came out. It was a showy move, not at all practical, but it was very good at displaying all of him. He completed the flip, then surfaced and dove backwards into the water again, this time swimming further down before turning up to the surface. He shifted in the water and built up speed. When he jumped out of the water, he spread his wings as the little cousins did, and glided towards his human on the dock.

This time, Bucky's smile was bright and clear, unambiguously happy to see his friend in this form, confirming their longer friendship built upon the stolen sandwiches. He raised a hand in the air, a little away from his body. 

Curving in the air (which the little cousins couldn't do), Sam flew to one side of Bucky, letting a fin reach out to slap his hand as gently as he could. Then he flew in a tight circle around Bucky, to dive into the water almost where he left it. He would see his friend again.

\--- 

Once out in the open ocean again, Bucky heaved a sigh of relief. That last day on shore had been hard. The local people were intensely interested in him, in varying ways, and he thought Sam had been right to stay away. 

At the same time, he missed Sam with an intensity that surprised him. It was like, and utterly unlike, the way he missed Steve. He'd grown up with Steve, had gone through nearly everything with Steve. Sam, he'd known for barely a day of talking, plus a couple of months of sandwich stealing. Yet he desperately wanted to see Sam again. In any form.

If Sam did come by, at least they had a whole hull of supplies laid in.

Another day went by, while Bucky tried not to fret. Hallucination? Dream? Weird drugs? He didn't think so, but there wasn't a single, solitary thing he could point to that showed it wasn't. Except for the clothes left behind, and those weren't even Sam's. 

Well, there wasn't anything he could do about it. Not really. Even if he could search for a not-so-mythological creature from another planet, he was fairly sure Sam wouldn't want him to. If Sam wanted to see him again, Sam would find him. He'd said so. Hadn't he?

Back once more in the cold water currents, Bucky throttled down the engine and looked around. 

Grey-blue water, rippling with waves in a never ending series of arcs and periodic white tips that rose and faded again. Quiet, peaceful. Alone.

Swallowing, Bucky went down to the mess and made a pair of sandwiches. The ingredients weren't the same as the traditional western ones he'd been mostly making up until now, but he thought they would still work. At least for food.

He was trying so hard not to hope. There was a pounding in his chest he thought was his heart-rate, despite the discipline of years to regulate it. Taking a breath, he walked steadily out onto the deck. He leaned on the railing, holding one of the sandwiches loosely in an outstretched hand on the top rung. 

And he waited.

It was only seconds, however, before a giant fish sprung out of the water next to his boat and flew right for him.

Bucky exhaled with relief. The sandwich disappeared from his hand, scales brushing by him. The fish curved up higher in the air, wings beating in the way the earth fish could not, and Sam winked at him.

His face felt funny. Bucky raised a hand and realized he was smiling so wide that the skin was all crunched up. "Sam," he breathed, so relieved to see him again.

Up in the air, the fish dropped the sandwich from his mouth, letting it fall. Then, still in mid-air, Sam changed shapes. He caught the sandwich with very human hands, while his wings spread out to hover and then lower him to the deck, his tail curving around like a built-in recliner. 

Sam looked up at Bucky and grinned, before taking a bite of the sandwich. "Oh, that's good!" He devoured most of it in a few bites while Bucky was just taking the first bite of his own. "I tell you, I might be able to live off the plentiful food in this huge sea of yours... but there is nothing like cooked meats with grain bread and sauces." Sam swallowed the last bite and licked his fingers.

"Good to see you again," Bucky managed through a tight throat. He couldn't keep his eyes off Sam, and it wasn't because there was a real-life merman in front of him.

Sam's gaze softened. "Same here." His wings extended and he shifted his tail and slid across the deck closer to Bucky.

"Hey, Sam," Bucky managed.

"Thanks for the sandwich, Bucky," Sam replied lightly, taking a bite out of the one he held.

But Sam had finished his...? Bucky glanced down at his hands and wasn't too surprised to see his own sandwich gone. "You little twerp!" Bucky swatted at Sam. "Sandwich stealer!"

Laughing, Sam ducked out of the way and then turned slightly to one side. 

Watching the body, Bucky forgot to watch for the tail. It bowled him over.

Growling and laughing at the same time, Bucky rolled over and then sprang up at an angle, grabbing the sandwich and darting away.

This time he was watching for the tail and jumped over it – only to get wacked with a wing. Those things were a little more substantial than the fins on a normal fish. He lost the sandwich again.

Bucky dove directly at Sam this time, making full-body contact and knocking him down to the deck. He'd lost track of the sandwich, but it didn't really matter.

Sam rolled over onto Bucky and Bucky abruptly realized that Sam as a merman weighed a lot more than Sam as a human. Digging his metal hand into the deck for leverage, he flipped them again, and this time he tried to figure out if there was a way he could pin Sam.

Both of them laughing, they wrestled across the deck, knocking things around. The sandwich was long gone.

Somewhere along the way, Sam shifted to human. 

Somewhere along the way, the wrestling turned into a different sort of welcome home. With maybe a little less laughing, yet just as much enthusiasm.

\--- 

The next day, they were lounging out on the deck, watching the waves. Bucky had the deck chair, since it was his, and Sam sat with his back against the cabin, bare legs stretched out on the smooth wood. Bucky suspected he was enjoying being in the human form, as he periodically saw him wiggling his toes for no obvious reason.

Bucky tilted his head back, sun full on his face. He was enjoying the silence. They had proven they could talk for hours on end together. Now they were also proving they didn't need the talk, or the action. Sam was a good companion. 

Every now and again, he caught himself looking out over the waves to look for his fish. Then he would remember and look at his fish on the deck instead. He couldn't say it was the oddest thing he'd ever experienced. Though it was definitely up there. In this case, though... it was something he really enjoyed. Bucky wasn't really a normal human being anymore, not from the experiments and the arm and the other things they'd done to him. To have Sam around... well, he was easier with Sam than most other people, human or not.

Just as Bucky started thinking it might be near lunch time, the high-toned alert of a radio call whistled across the boat. It wasn't unduly loud, but definitely pitched to get one's attention.

Sam instantly was up and across the deck, crouched down with his back against the solid side of the hull, facing the cabin opening, his gaze flicking between that and also focused upward, above the boat. His hands were in front of him, his left in a blocking position across his body, his right near his chest, his fingers drawn together. 

As Bucky stood up, Sam glanced his way and then relaxed, his breath coming out in an explosive puff. 

"Sorry," Bucky offered. "It's the radio alert." 

"Yeah," Sam shook out his hands. "It surprised me. It happens."

It had surprised Bucky a few times too, and he'd taken the precaution of making every single thing on this ship sound out before he'd taken it out of dock, so he would know what they all were. He'd even made Fury (well, Fury's technicians, really) change a few of the sounds he really wasn't happy with. There was a hole in one of walls below from one time when he'd reacted worse than Sam.

With Sam on his heels, he walked in and flipped the circuits to make the connection, then grabbed the mic. "This is the Sea Haven. Hey ya, Punk."

"Hey, Jerk," Steve's voice through the radio that was his lifeline back home. "How are you doing? How's your fish doing?"

Bucky chuckled as he looked at Sam. "The fish and I are doing fine."

Sam waved at the radio panel in a friendly manner. "Hi Punk."

Steve probably said something after that, but Bucky was laughing too hard to hear it. After a minute or so, he calmed down enough to talk. "Sam, that was an insult, not a name. Didn't it translate?"

While he was having his laughing fit, Sam had been watching indulgently. With Bucky's question, he shook his head. "All names have some meaning at their base. 'Punk' came through as a proper name – translation depends on context, and that wasn't an insult."

"Fair enough," Steve said, a chuckle in his own voice. "In that case, mysterious Sam, you can call Bucky, 'Jerk', because he is one. I'm Steve."

"Ah! You're Steve." Sam leaned in towards the panel. "Bucky talks a lot about you."

Bucky blinked. "I do not."

"You've mentioned 'Steve' three times," Sam pointed out, "which is three more times than you've said anything at all about anybody else."

Bucky opened his mouth... and then had to close it again. Sam was probably right. In defeat, he made introductions that were probably unnecessary at this point. "Sam, meet Steve. Steve, meet Sam."

Steve laughed. "We've got that, Buck. Are you at a port, then?"

"No, we're at sea. We left port a couple of days ago." 

There were a few seconds of silence on the other end. "Oh. Ah..."

Sam cleared his throat. "Right. I'm going for a swim, Bucky. Nice to meet you, Steve." With a wry grin at Bucky and another wave at the control panel, he left the cabin. 

Belatedly, Bucky realized that Sam probably thought the radio transmitted visuals as well as sound. Oh well. He'd explain it later.

"Um, did he say he was going---"

"Hush, Steve," Bucky broke in absently, "I like to watch this part."

Sam jumped easily up to the gunwale, balanced for a moment, then dove off. Mid-dive, his body shifted into the merman and slid smoothly into the ocean between the wavelets. After a moment, the fish jumped out of the water, glided for a few seconds, then back in. Then the fish jumped up and over the ship, waggling a fin/wing at him while Bucky waved in response. This time, after the fish dove into the water, it didn't come back up again.

"I'm never going to get tired of that." Bucky exhaled with a sense of wonder.

"Buck, is Sam swimming in the ocean? How far away from land are you? You do know I wasn't entirely kidding about the sharks, right? What if something happens?" Steve had stayed obediently quiet until Bucky broke the silence, but it seemed he'd been piling up all that in the meantime.

Bucky snorted. "It's okay, Stevie. Believe me when I say Sam can take care of himself out there. He's been a sea man a lot longer than I have."

"That wouldn't be hard, considering you've only been one for eight months." 

"Ah, but I'm an old soul!" Bucky grinned at himself.

Steve huffed something that was in-between a choke and a laugh. He was quiet for a moment, then serious. "I haven't heard you happy for... a long time. If that's from Sam, I don't care about anything else."

Bucky thought about it. To him, the change seemed more gradual than that, but Steve may not have gotten a lot of it. When they talked on the radio, Steve did more of the talking and Bucky content to listen. Of course, the fish was part of it, and that was Sam too. So... Steve just didn't know about Sam. 

Without Sam here to say it was okay to tell Steve, Bucky wasn't going to say. Steve was his everything and his best friend, but Sam's secrets were Sam's. Just because Sam hadn't hidden them from Bucky or the villagers, didn't mean he wanted them broadcast everywhere. It could also wait. There was more to Sam than the fish.

"It's the ocean, and the time, and yeah, Sam too." Bucky sat down and propped his feet up on the counter. "Sam's a veteran too. Different war," very different, "but he gets me. We... fit together." He tapped his metal fingers against his thigh and then held up his hand and spread it out, turning it, watching it. "He's not afraid of me." He paused. "I'm not afraid of hurting him."

Bucky hadn't realized it until just this moment, explaining it to Steve. But between Sam's easy acceptance of Bucky and the mystery surrounding Sam, Bucky had completely forgotten to be careful. Most people drew back a touch, or set themselves in a defense stance, or had some little reaction that made Bucky aware of how much blood he had on him. It wasn't just that Sam wasn't afraid, though Bucky appreciated it... it's that Bucky hadn't thought once about how he might harm Sam. 

Thinking about it now, he wasn't sure he would. In a fight, sure. That was a given. But on just a casual contact level, even if Bucky forgot himself, Sam was more than able to take care of himself without making a big deal of it. That best friend of his, the Russian-probably not really Russian-gal, Natasha... she must be quite something.

"That's... really good, Buck." 

Another pause while Bucky pictured Steve grinning a little sadly. Funny thing, though, most of the time he pictured Steve, it was with the smaller body. His voice hadn't changed all that much, even with the mystic Captain America beef body. 

All this time on the boat and ocean had given him time to piece together a lot of his memories. There were a lot of them he didn't like and didn't really want, but that was probably human too. The early memories with Steve, though... those were all precious to him.

Steve went on, "Not that what I think matters. You'll hang out with who you want to, you always did. Even if I didn't approve."

Bucky snorted in surprise and derision. "Oh, bullshit. Well, other than hanging out with your stupid face. But if somebody didn't treat you right, I'd certainly be no friend of theirs."

"Riiiiiight. And that's why all those double dates always ended up with you with two girls and me with none."

Bucky rolled his eyes. "And did you ever see any of them again? Well, with me, that is?"

"Uh," there was a short pause, presumably for reflection. "You never told them anything! I would have heard."

"How much of a test is it, if everybody knows how to cheat? Of course I never told them. If I went off on them, everybody would know and then it would be a lot harder to figure out which ones were real."

"Huh." Steve's voice sounded contemplative, as if he was re-evaluating his past.

Bucky could relate – he was constantly looking at his from so many different views.

"You'll like Sam, promise." Bucky was sure of that. In fact, "I'm glad I met him first; pretty darn sure he'll like you too."

"Uh, Buck..."

"I _know_ , Stevie," Bucky said, exasperated. He stood up to pace, tethered by the cord's reach. "I just mean... you two are a lot alike." Now that he thought about it, they kind of were. Sam didn't have Steve's ball of righteous anger, but he had that same steady, _good_ quality that had always made him follow Steve. He hadn't seen Sam fight, but he suspected he'd be more like Steve than himself. Bucky was good at fighting, but he'd never particularly enjoyed it. Sam would go right back in for more.

"Oh shit," Bucky blurted out in realization.

"What?" Steve asked anxiously.

"There're two of you now. I'm going to have to watch over _both_ of you!"

Steve's burst of laughter wasn't very reassuring.

Bucky smiled a little wryly. It wasn't like he wasn't used to it. That reminded him, "How are the others doing?" Sitting down again, he looked out at the ocean. Memories, old and new. The ocean's waves never stopped in their circuits around the world.

"Peggy's doing good, Buck. We—"

"No," Bucky interrupted. "Well, Pegs too. But I meant..." He took a breath. He thought he'd been ready. It was harder to actually say it. "Dum Dum. Gabe. Jacque." His breath caught in his throat and the last two names came out choked and rushed. "Jim, Monty." Once done, he closed his eyes and put down the mic so he could grip the edge of the shelf and hold on tightly. The metal crumpled where his left hand squeezed. That was nothing new – there were similar spots all along the non-functional parts of this ship. What was new was him asking.

He hadn't said those names since before he'd missed his grip on the side of a train, metal tearing away, sending him plunging into a different life. 

He'd refused to let them come to him. He couldn't deny Steve, and Peggy came as part of that, and SHIELD. But the others... he could, and had, denied them. It wasn't his life. 

Except it was his life. He wasn't two people... he was one messed up sorry son, and those had been his friends, once. They had written him letters. He'd left all of them behind. Now, though... now he wanted just a little bit. Just... something. 

Bucky wished Sam was here so he could reach out and hold onto him during this. Instead, he loosened his fingers’ grip on the shelf. He walked to look out a different window. He wanted to see his fish jumping up through the waves, wings outstretched to catch the wind, taking life in despite all it had done to beat him down.

On the other end, there was silence that held a few suspicious sounding sniffles. Bucky hoped like heck that Steve wasn't going to start crying on him. 

Finally, Steve cleared his throat. "Well, last weekend, Dum Dum came over with his grand-daughter. Oh gosh, you should see her! Not afraid of a darn thing. Has Dum Dum completely wrapped around her finger. And, by the way, _loves_ it when I call him Dum Dum. He apparently gave the nick-name up when he became 'respectable'." The quote marks could almost be heard as Steve laughed as he said it. "They knew it was in the histories, but family hadn't heard it directly until I showed up. Now, it's all Maria will call him. He's resigned.

"We went down to the park later, and Jim and his family met us out there. His son's twins are almost Maria's age..."

Bucky let the words and images flow over him, drinking them in. Nourishment that he'd craved but hadn't been able to take until now.

\--- 

Swimming in the water next to the ship, Sam turned his head to look at his friend. Bucky was sitting in the upper post (he called it a "Captain's Chair") with a good view of everything around them and of Sam alongside. They were going slowly enough that Sam was surface-skipping instead of actually swimming. He could use his tail in the water to propel him forward while his wings kept his upper half out of the water. It wasn't the most efficient way to travel, but it meant that he could talk with Bucky without having to be on the boat in human form with him. (Talking enhanced with a touch of metal communication instead of relying on purely auditory.) Bucky had no problems with this, or when Sam decided he wanted to duck under and swim regularly. Or would switch to fish form. 

Sam had found the best human in the whole world. Bucky really liked all of him, not just the human form. He said he actually preferred the fish form, but Sam took that as a combination of nostalgia and teasing. 

The other week, when Steve had revealed their habit of casual insults, Sam had taken to it gleefully. He'd tested the waters with a few light barbs, and found to his delight that Bucky could respond with evil intent. They still kept it light, feeling their way with each other, but confident enough that they didn't need sweet talking all the time. Take their current argument.

"But your evolution makes no _sense_!"

Bucky sent him an exasperated look. "Like your "oh we shift because our world doesn't have enough diversity" does?"

Sam dove under the waves and then came up again. "We're not talking about my world right now. But my world doesn't follow physics rules as closely as yours does. Yours is _supposed_ to be logical."

"So what doesn't make sense about evolution? Everything fits in there."

"Your oxygen-breathing water animals don't!"

Scrunching his face up, Bucky shook his head as if to clear it. "All animals breath oxygen. It's practically one of the definitions of animal. Plants absorb carbon dioxide, but animals—"

"Lungs, I meant," Sam interrupted. "Breathing with lungs instead of gills. Getting their oxygen from the air instead of water."

"The dolphins."

"Those assholes, yes," Sam agreed, grimacing. He wasn't very fond of dolphins. Playful, yes, and apparently liked humans okay... but still assholes. "And their larger cousins..." he trailed off and waited for the name. He'd heard it before but hadn't been trying to learn the language then and had forgotten it.

"Whales," Bucky obliged. "The larger ones are whales."

Sam didn't like dolphins, but he _loved_ whales. Whales were awesome. Whales _sang_ and he could hear their song from distances throughout the sea. "Yes, whales. The ones some as large as dragons."

Bucky tilted his head down to look at him, with his eyebrows doing that thing again. "You mean dinosaurs?"

"I mean dragons," Sam reiterated. "What are dinosaurs?"

"Oh no. No, no, no, no." Bucky held his hands up, the thin bracelet around his wrist glinting in the light. "I'm not about to try and try and talk dinosaurs with you when in the middle of a discussion about evolution and whales. Just, no." He put his hands back on the steering wheel. "Plus, my knowledge is out of date. Forty years of research... I've got a lot to catch up on." 

Slightly disappointed, Sam went on with his original topic. "By your evolution science, you've got fish that crawled up onto land, okay, I can get that one... but then those land fish, now goats, went prancing _back_ into the water. I mean, really. They got out up into the air, said, "oh, we don't like it after all," and then turned around and went _back_? That just makes no sense at all!" 

There was silence for a few moments, though Sam could see Bucky's lips moving as if he was repeating some of that to himself. Then Bucky shut off the engine and leaned over the railing to stare at Sam. 

Obediently, Sam stopped skipping and turned in the water so he was floating alongside. He raised his eyebrows at Bucky and waggled his tail. "Come on, explain that."

"You do realize that it didn't actually happen all at the same time?" Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose. "That this was over millions of years with a gradual change to the animals adjusting?"

"It would make _more_ sense if it was all the same creature!" Sam protested. "At least then, hey, motivation. But evolution? Why would a goat go into the water?"

"What is it with the goats? Of all the land animals, you have to pick on goats?"

"I haven't seen many land mammals," Sam admitted. "To me, whales look more like goats than dogs."

Bucky shook his head. "I have _got_ to look that up when I get back," he muttered. Then looked at Sam again, "But why on earth wouldn't they want to go into the water? You're in the water! I'm in the water! The damn fish are in the water! How does it not make sense that something wouldn't want to be in the water, no matter what its ancestors did?"

That was a good point. And, as such, Sam didn't address it. He switched attacks. "Why is your world called "Earth"? Out of all things you humans decide to call your planet, you thought "dirt" would be the best descriptor? You realize that there's more water in this world than land, right?" Lots and lots of glorious, wonderful water. There was so much of it! Sam loved this world.

Bucky pinched his nose bridge harder, then dropped his hand and mock-glared at Sam. "I didn’t name the freakin' thing! Nobody did."

"Well, somebody had to!"

"Well, it wasn't—"

Sam didn't hear anything else Bucky said, as all his warning sensors went off at the same time. The eddy!

"Ivegottogo!" Sam called out even as he bent at the waist and dove straight down, his tail flicking in powerful sweeps to drive him down quickly.

Above him, he felt more than heard the impact of a body entering the water. _Oh, he didn't..._

There was no time to waste, but Sam doubled back anyway and went upwards. Bucky was already many feet under water, a knife clenched between his teeth and his arms and legs propelling him downward. Humans just weren't made for swimming and yet they managed anyhow.

Sam evaluated the distance to the boat and air – negligible – and the time needed to explain to Bucky not to follow him – significant – and gave up. He grabbed Bucky in a tight hold and then turned once more, diving down again.

"Hold onto me. Do not let go! What the hell were you thinking?!" Most worlds had a hell. Or two. Sam was mad enough to almost wish Bucky in one of them. He tilted his head briefly to look at Bucky, who still had the knife between his teeth and was looking a little wild-eyed.

Oh. "You can breathe. As long as you don't let go of me. Or I don't let go of you. It's the same principle. Just talk normally, and don't let go." Sam wasn't about to let go of Bucky, but they were also travelling very far under and he would feel better about it if Bucky was holding onto him as well.

Letting go with one hand, Bucky retrieved the knife and put it away somewhere. "What the hell, Sam!?"

"My line," Sam rejoined, even as he turned slightly to get the right direction. "What were you thinking, following me! You're not made for the water!"

"I thought you were attacked! We were talking, then you yelled something garbled, then you went under with a large splash! Of course I went in!"

Sam sighed; it was his fault. He could have taken a few extra seconds to say he was leaving more clearly. "I have to go check on the eddy. Something is very wrong with it. I didn't think..." he wasn't used to this.

"Eddy? Who is that?"

"It's a what, not a who. It's the... portal, the door, the gate, the hole between the worlds that let us come through. They're not very stable, though, and it was my job to keep an eye on it. That's why I've been swimming around in circles in this area enough to have met a human doing the same thing."

Bucky shifted against him, changing his weight distribution.

"Don't let go," Sam reminded him. "We're too far under for you. Don't let go of me." He hadn't released his own grip, but he was still terrified for Bucky. He should have taken the extra minutes and put Bucky back on the boat.

"I don't think that's a problem," Bucky said wryly. 

They were well below any light from the surface, and Sam was swimming on feel instead of sight. He turned that feeling towards himself and Bucky for a moment. "Ah, sorry, that wasn't intentional." The connecting controller that Bucky wore as a slim band around his wrist had extended and grown, throwing lines around both of them, holding them together and cocooning Bucky tightly to him. The cocoon wasn't intentional, but it was a good idea, with a bit of modification. He gave it a little mental nudge and it unwove most of the cocoon, transforming instead to a secure harness that anchored on Sam but gave Bucky a little more room. 

In his mer form, he was bigger all around than Bucky, so having Bucky harnessed to him didn't interfere with Sam's swimming at all. It was like having an extra-large medical or supply pack strapped on – he tended to wear packs against his chest to clear his wings in the back. He might tell Bucky about the comparison later, when he could tease about it and not when everything was so tense. 

Bucky breathed against him, then relaxed a tiny bit. "No attack, then?"

"No attack," Sam confirmed. Then thought about it. "Probably."

"That's not very reassuring."

Sam shrugged. "Won't know until we get there. Hush, I have to concentrate." He was swimming all out, as fast as he could, and also maintaining his grip on Bucky. It wasn't especially hard, but he didn't want to make any mistakes. 

When they got to the eddy, Sam stopped a cautious distance away to look it over. It was putting out enough light that his eyes could see it, even this deep under water.

"Wow," Bucky remarked, craning his head to see. "Hey, can you turn this harness thing? So I can see it too? I don't want it at my back. If it's okay to take the time, that is."

That was a definite point. Sam turned to one side so they both had a view of the eddy, then concentrated on the filaments off the controller until they loosened enough that Bucky could turn around. While at the same time, trying to keep close contact with Sam. If there wasn't a destabilized eddy right next them, Sam was sure he would have enjoyed all the squirming a lot more.

When they finally settled, the comparison with wearing a pack was even more apt. Any inclination to smile, however, was negated by the eddy.

"It's pretty," Bucky finally said. His voice was calm, but he was playing with his knife, absently shifting it in grip positions and adapting to the changed dynamics of being under-water. 

Sam eyed the color-bursts radiating off and around the eddy. He supposed, objectively, that it was pretty. Like the arcs of color that came after a rain. Sam liked those. He didn't like this nearly as much. "It's not supposed to be."

Bucky gripped his knife, not putting it into another spin.

"It's not going to attack us." Sam almost wished it would – he could do something about that. But the eddy wasn't sentient. Probably wasn't. "It's normally a pale shade, a faint opalescence that blends with backgrounds. This color display... It's no longer stable." 

He looked around for his pods that had been monitoring the eddy, and was relieved to see them all still intact. Activating his controller, he filtered through the information the pods had captured. "It's like your boat... well, if yours was a lot larger, like some of those that pass by. You use one anchor near land to keep from drifting off. A larger vessel might use four, or six anchors. The eddy had been stable... but some of its anchors have broken."

"What does that mean for you?" Bucky asked.

"Don't know yet." 

Sam had all the data he needed for the moment. Now for the next hard step. Holding his hand out, he stretched out a connection he didn't use often. Highest priority. "Commander Carol – the eddy has changed." The wording let her know it wasn't an instant emergency, though still urgent.

Contact came and there was a brief glimpse of people and air and movement, then Carol abandoned whatever she had been doing to get to a clear spot. She reciprocated on visuals and sound and her image formed in front of them.

"Sam," she acknowledged him. Then her eyebrows went up in a slanted curve and she tilted her head slightly. The mouth curve came a second later. "And you must be James Barnes..."

Bucky raised his knife hand in something between a wave and a salute. "Ma'am." Sam could feel his discomfort. Tied to Sam's chest was probably not the best way for a first introduction. Oh well.

Back to the main issue. "The eddy has lost some points of contact and is drifting away. It will close within the week."

Carol's mouth tightened, though she didn't say anything. They had all been hoping for longer, for a rare stable eddy that would actually last long enough for real contact. But that had been against the odds in the first place. The ten months it had lasted had been longer than most.

"Evaluation?" Carol finally asked. "Can we get home?"

Sam ignored Bucky's twitch and replied without any emotion in his voice. "It will hold for return trips for two, possibly three days. However, no trips to here by anything living – the points where it has destabilized will make it almost impossible. Hard goods can still get through for another three, four days, if we don't mind some of them being lost or slightly deformed on the way. We can send things back home without an issue almost to the point of full detachment."

"I see," Carol turned her image until she was facing the eddy. Realistically, she didn't need to do that – she was getting everything Sam could send through the controller. Yet the motion made a visual impact for anybody watching. And kept any visual watchers from trying to read her emotions through facial reaction.  
Sam politely didn't remark on any of the feedback through the connection. He was having enough problems trying to keep his own emotions stable and not projecting them on anybody else.

Instead of the silence, Sam tried to listen into the depths. Sometimes he saw whales down here. It was deep, even for them, but his favorite Earth mammal liked to explore and swim. He thought he might be able to hear a song... feel it... but it was faint.

It was easier to feel Bucky's heartbeats with his back against Sam's chest. Feel his breathing. Bucky usually breathed with maximum efficiency, slowly in and slower out, deep and steady. Sometimes, though, like now, his breathing was shallower, a little faster. Sam thought it had more to do with minimizing the movements of his body than any direct emotion.

Involuntarily, he tightened his hold with the arm he still had around Bucky. The other hand was using the controller to keep the communication with Carol and the input from the pods.

Bucky sighed softly, his body relaxing into Sam's, and the hand not holding the knife shifting to cover Sam's. Which was also interesting, because he preferred his knife in the flesh hand, yet generally didn’t use the metal hand for affectionate gestures. 

“Destruction is often pretty,” Bucky remarked. “Life is messy.”

Sam watched the play of colors around the eddy, shifting through most of the visible spectrum, and probably some that weren’t distinguishable to his eyes. Bucky’s statement was a generality, and Sam could instantly think of exceptions in the other directions, but Sam got what he meant. Life wasn’t always pretty, but it was life. 

Before Sam could reply, Carol turned around again. “Messy, but often worth it.” She drew a long breath in. “We have to start the gathering. I’ll send out the notice.” Carol looked between Bucky and Sam, and her mouth curved in a planning smile. “I suspect you have a vessel nearby? Would we be able to use it to hold our people?” She gestured around them, “Most of us don’t have the same skills as Sam, and getting down here requires some preparation.”

Bucky was silent for a moment. “It’s not a very large ship… how many people are you expecting?”

“About 20, probably,” Carol replied easily. “We can adjust for size if needed – most of our third forms are smaller and can fit in easier.”

“Just harder to talk that way,” Sam put in with a wry grin. The frustration of communication hadn’t been so much of an issue when he was just a fish stealing sandwiches. A fish that actually wanted to talk to Bucky, however… needed to change. There was a reason they all had human forms – it was the only way they all could connect and be together for any length of time when their natural forms were so very different.

“We can do twenty, as long as there’s no dancing.” 

Dancing. Sam looked at Bucky with interest. They hadn’t tried dancing yet. If Bucky liked to dance… Sam was willing to learn. 

Carol laughed. “All right, then. I’ll have everybody gather in and meet at your ship. It might take awhile for some, we’re scattered around and this is a very large world.”

“That’s okay,” Bucky said politely. “We have sandwiches.”

Sam smiled and tucked his head down onto Bucky’s. That deserved a cuddle. Even with the knife still in Bucky’s hand.

Looking at them, Carol’s expression softened. Then she put the commander persona back on again, draping it around her. “I’ll make the announcement. See you in a bit.” She held up her hand and the image faded out.

That left the two of them looking at the eddy again.

With a sigh, Sam directed his pods to monitoring positions again, and reset their alert parameters. 

“Ready to head back?”

“Let me turn around again…” Bucky squirmed until they were face to face again, the harness adjusting for it. The knife was replaced in its sheath and cord-locked so it wouldn’t fall out in the water.

There was a long moment while they just watched each other, searching for thoughts and feelings, perhaps memorizing the play of eddy light across their faces. Then they leaned in for a kiss. 

Sam shut his eyes and let himself just feel it. Feel the kiss, feel Bucky against him, feel Bucky’s trust, feel his own affection for this wonderful human. 

He hadn’t been looking for the attachment, had swam across it almost accidentally, yet it was something he valued now.

“We should get to the boat before anybody else arrives.” Sam reluctantly stopped caressing Bucky and put his hands more firmly into a hold position.

“Is that possible?” Bucky settled himself against Sam, sinking down a little and turning his head to rest against Sam’s chest.

With a flick of his tail, Sam started swimming again. Heading away from the flickering light and up towards the surface. There wasn’t the urgency propelling them, and as he swam, he periodically felt around to check if there was anything worth a detour to show Bucky. 

“There’s a few of them that could. They probably won’t head out immediately, though – they’ll take the time to carefully extract or say goodbye.”

Bucky’s breath hitched and then stopped for long enough that Sam almost got worried. Then Bucky let it out. It was a few minutes, though, before he actually asked. “Are you…?” Or almost asked.

Sam tilted his head back, still swimming. Nothing to see, they were back in darkness again. “If we can choose, I’m staying. Home will always remind me of war and loss. This planet is a chance to live again.” He had made his decision months ago. He wasn’t sure what a lifetime of being here would be like… but he wasn’t ready to go home. Against all probability, he’d been hoping the eddy would stay stable longer, or even be an ultra-rare semi-permanent one. That had never really been a realistic hope, though.

“If you can choose? They’ll force you back, even if you want to stay?”

Sam shrugged. “There are a lot of reasons why a world might be interdicted. It could be something that kills us, non-sustainable long term, too crowded, too hostile, too vulnerable, other reasons. Carol compiles all the reports from the team and makes the final decision.” The feel of his human against him, holding him, trusting him, was something Sam didn’t ever want to lose. “If the study says that by being here, we will end up destroying you – I don’t want to stay, if it would hurt you.” 

Realistically, if it was one of those reasons, he probably had already been too close to Bucky. There hadn’t been a lot of long-term planning when he’d chosen to go in and talk to his friendly human that fed him.

“There’s a lot out there that would kill anybody else,” Bucky said roughly. “The war— They experimented on me. I’m not very vulnerable anymore.”

Sam drew his own breath in. With one part of him, he rejoiced that Bucky wouldn’t be hurt by his careless actions. With the other… experimented on. There was so much under that, dark and horrible. 

Flicking his tail, Sam altered course, sending them in a different direction. It would take a little longer, but he couldn’t not share this, not if he had to leave.

“Do you hear that?” Sam asked softly as they got closer.

“I… what is it?” 

“Songs. It’s your long ago mammals returned to their waters, bringing with them breath and life and song.”

“Whales? That’s a whale?” Bucky listened some more. “It’s… it’s different. But it’s nice.”

Sam slowed their approach and cast out a small filament off the controller, lighting it up. He turned so that they were sideways to it, so both of them could see without having to rearrange the harness again.

Bucky said a few words that were recognizable as swear words, no matter what language they were in. Some things were truly universal.

The whale stopped her song to look them over. Literally. She swam around them a few times, and even rotated the other direction so to see from the eye on the other side of her head. Sam was buffeted with her sound castings, and had to churn his tail so not to be propelled back. 

Finally, she seemed to accept their oddness and hovered in the water, as Sam was doing. They looked at each other, her eye larger than their heads.

Then Sam sung.

It was a song about the war. It was a song about loss, determination, more loss. Moments of strength and even joy in the battle, and winning. But loss. Ever and always, the loss coating all they had won. Slowly, though, his song changed. A friend who wouldn’t give up on him. Exploration, newness, time… and a new, unlikely but wonderful, friendship that he didn’t want to give up on either. 

He ended the song with his delight in this world, and his joy of finding whales too, even if they were evolutionarily strange. Strange, but with beautiful music that he wanted to hear more of.

The ocean was silent for a little while after.

Then the whale swam in closer, nearly touching them.

Sam reached out and placed his hand on her long jaw. Bucky hesitated, then did the same at Sam’s nod. They stayed like that for many breaths. Then Sam swam them backward, their hands leaving her skin as they moved.

The whale started her own song again, and turned back to her route. Sam retrieved his filament and turned them to theirs.

They were both silent for the rest of the trip, listening to the fading sound of the song.

\--- 

Bucky had shooed Sam out of the gallery so he could make sandwiches for the incoming crowd. Sam had tried to help… but Sam was in a good mood and it showed. Bucky just wanted some peace and quiet for awhile.

As his hands automatically sorted bread, meats, cheeses, and other condiments, Bucky let his mind wander.

He and Sam had been taking everything very much on a day to day basis. There was no planning, there was no future, there was just what they were doing at the moment. 

Now, suddenly, there was the future looming large and heavy over their heads.

Bucky had never even asked Sam what he was doing on their world. 

It hadn’t really mattered, and was part of the discovery they had been exploring. He knew that Sam was a good person – that was one of the most obvious things about him. Bucky knew what the opposite looked like, and Sam… Sam was not them. Sam was like Steve, and Bucky’s heart ached over it sometimes, knowing that he wasn’t. Somehow, though, both Steve and Sam liked Bucky. In somewhat different ways… but the friendship was always the base of everything. That part was more important than anything else.

Heck, Sam wasn’t even always the same thing, and yet he was always, definitely, Sam. When he jumped up out of the water, and spread his wings and flew over the boat… Bucky’s heart still sored whenever he saw his fish. The human form, the merman form, the fish form… all of them, Sam. 

Bucky had gotten very used to having Sam around. Trying to think about the future, all that kept coming to mind was taking Sam back to meet Steve, and then the Commandos and Peggy. His family. Bucky still had family, somewhere. And that was more than Sam himself had. Sam’s grief was quiet but sometimes all-consuming for what he had lost. Still, Sam picked himself up, smiled at Bucky, and brought them both to laughter.

When Bucky had first sailed out, it had been hard to drag up even a semblance of a smile. Now, Bucky could look at the sunrise across the waters and think about how beautiful it was, and his lips curved up naturally, without the tightness across the skin from muscles long unused. He could watch his fish skip-jumping across the water and laugh at his antics. He could live.

If he had to, Bucky knew he could live without Sam. He could… but he didn’t want to. He wanted Sam in his future, whatever that future might be.

That was probably enough food for now. Bucky got out a couple of plates to put the sandwiches on and cups for drinks. He didn’t have enough cups. Well, hopefully they could make do.

“Bucky! We’ve got incoming – er, of the good kind. Come out and see.”

A cheerful shout, easy comradery. Sam wanted to share something with Bucky.

Oh, how Bucky wanted to keep this. This sharing, this ease, this… Samness.

He took one plate out with him and looked around.

Sam pointed up and to the left.

Bucky squinted. There wasn’t anything out there other than a bit of a glow in the sky. … A glow in the sky? He looked at Sam, then returned his gaze to the glow, which was getting brighter and brighter. White and blue, with shimmers of yellow and red, the intensity of a welding flame. “What…?”

Leaning on the railing, Sam grinned. “That’s Carol. She’s a piece of a star.”

“A piece of a star? Like… a shooting star?”

“Shooting star, I like that description. She’ll like it too.” Sam nodded. “Smaller than her relatives up in space, but just as fierce and fiery. Stars are super rare. There’s only ever been a few of them. We’re lucky to have Carol.”

The glowing star had seemed to slow as it got nearer. Which Bucky was grateful for – he wasn’t sure if the boat could hold up to a meteorite crashing through. Which, okay, Carol obviously wasn’t a meteorite, but rather a piece of a star. If Bucky could take Sam’s merman form in stride, he could surely adapt to glowy stars too. He wondered what else was in their group.

The glow hovered above the deck, then coalesced into one, then two people. Carol, in human form, put down the person she’d been carrying. “Sam! James! Good to see you. Hope you don’t mind, I brought along a friend. We thought it would be good to have an Earth representative here for the choice. Permission to board?”

“Permission granted,” Bucky replied. Then irony got the best of him, “Though you don’t really need it since it’s his boat.” He nodded a wary greeting to Carol’s friend. “Colonel Fury.” Somehow, Bucky just wasn’t as surprised as perhaps he might have been. 

“Sergeant Barnes,” Fury drawled back. “Good to see you.”

Carol turned to look at Fury, her eyebrows raising. “You put an agent in the middle of the ocean to look for us? I’m impressed…”

Bucky glanced at Sam, worried about how he might take it. Sam, though, didn’t seem upset. When he caught Bucky’s look, he just shrugged, then grinned at Bucky. Being fresh out of a war, his views were probably more realistic instead of idealistic.

“Not exactly,” Fury replied to Carol, while keeping a large part of his attention on Bucky and Sam. “Barnes isn’t an agent, and doesn’t know anything about this. When he and Rogers came up with their weird idea that being alone makes recovery from trauma oh so much better and bribed their old buddy into letting them do it, I thought to myself, ocean, now where would be a good spot…? And there had been that unusual energy reading combined with a small tsunami. I just persuaded their old buddy that his research could just as easily be done in this spot of the ocean as any other.”

And by doing so, saved putting an active agent in the area, but still got a SHIELD ship and communications in case something did happen. Bucky shook his head. Spy types were always tricky, and heads of an international spy group were even worse. He still wasn’t surprised. It was actually a practical solution. There wasn’t any point in Bucky being upset. All things considered, Bucky was fairly happy with how this had turned out. If Fury hadn’t interfered, he wouldn’t have met Sam. 

On the other hand, “Steve’s not going to be very happy when he finds out.” 

Unlike himself and Sam, Steve was still very idealistic. And they hadn’t bribed their old army contact turned scientist. That was more likely Fury, deflecting his own actions.

Fury grimaced. “Maybe I’ll take a vacation myself around the time he’s told.” 

“That’s not going to help. He saves this sort of stuff up.”

“Oh well. Price of prudence.” 

Bucky held the plate out. “Would you like a sandwich, Sir?”

Fury looked the plate over and took the pork wrap. “Thank you, Sergeant. Though you’re not technically under my command.”

“Yet.” Bucky wasn’t really under too many illusions for how long that would continue to be true, given his past history. “Not a Sergeant anymore, either.”

“If you come up with something you’d rather be called, let me know.” He took a bite of the wrap. “Not bad.”

Dealing with Fury was not something Bucky had done much of in the short time he’d been around at base. Steve, however, often complained about how frustrating it was, while still obviously holding the man in great esteem. Bucky could see it. He suspected that Sam’s friend, Natasha, would get along much, much better. They had similar twisty minds. Carol also looked like she enjoyed the exchanges.

Shaking his head, Bucky stepped back towards Sam, a silent request to redirect attention. He wasn’t sure if he was going to handle twenty more people on the boat.

Sam instantly came to his rescue. “Carol, it’ll be our choice, then?”

Carol nodded. “There is no reason we can’t stay on this planet. All the data consistently checks out.” She hesitated for a brief moment. “I expect, however, most of the team will go back. With the eddy already blocked for anybody else to come over, that prevents the typical migration that would support us. And… our planet is not over-populated, right now.”

Sam nodded, expressionless. 

Bucky’s heart broke, a little. 

Moving past the moment, Carol explained further. “Colonel Fury represents an international organization that deals with… the odder things that happen. In addition to some regular stuff when their quota of the odd is running low. For the few who do stay, it will help to be a part of this system, rather than trying to avoid it all the time.”

Sam and Bucky both nodded. Bucky would have preferred to avoid it himself, but the circumstances of his finding didn’t leave him much choice, unless he wanted to avoid Steve too. That wasn’t really a option. With Sam’s people… some of them might have wanted to avoid too, but Carol was apparently not as fond of that option. Well, that was one way of making sure of things.

“Nobody has to join, and we don’t expect soldiers fresh out of one war to jump into another,” Fury added. “But if something threatens Earth on a scale we can’t handle by ourselves, we do hope for some additional assistance.”

“Makes sense,” Sam said easily. “I hope you mean what you say, though, about not expecting us to join. There won’t be—” he broke off and glanced at Bucky, then returned his focus to Fury, “—many who will.”

Bucky wasn’t a SHIELD agent, not yet. But again, Steve… and Bucky’s past history. He would talk to Sam later about it. Providing Sam stayed. Bucky wouldn’t count it as a done deal until the eddy actually closed for good. He wasn’t even sure what would be best for Sam. He wanted Sam to stay, Sam said he would stay… but how would it feel to be cut so completely off from your own kind? Bucky might be displaced in time, and with more baggage than the Grand Canyon, but at least he was still mostly human, with other humans. If Bucky was all that Sam would have in this world, he would try to be his best for him.

Carol glanced out over the water. “Is that Pepper? I didn’t think anybody else would be out here this quick. She must have left as soon as I put the notice up.”

Sam leaned on the railing next to Bucky. “Looks like her.” He sounded happy.

All Bucky could see in that direction was a small yellow dot in the air. He was used to having better eyesight than those around him. It was disconcerting yet refreshing to be the lesser being here. He took out the binoculars instead.

It was a bird. But not just a bird. It was a yellow and red bird with feathers of flame and fire. Beautiful and, he was sure, deadly. 

Bucky put the binoculars down and wondered if he should put buckets of water around the deck. First Carol, now this Pepper…

When the flaming bird got closer to the boat, Sam hopped up on the railing. “Pep Pep!” he yelled, then jumped off, shifting to mer as he dove.

Bucky wasn’t surprised when the flying fish came out of the water.

He was surprised, though, when the flaming bird dove down and flew diagonally under as the fish got to the top of his jump arc. 

Then the two of them played. 

Bucky leaned on the rail and watched, fascinated. He was used to seeing Sam play by himself, but he’d never had a partner in his antics before. Now there was a bird – not only air, but flame as well – and the two were weaving in and out of the jumps and curves, going around each other, almost but never quite colliding…

“Pepper, please don’t fly so close to the water,” Carol sighed, putting her hand over her eyes. “It didn’t used to be so worrisome until I was in charge of them.”

“I know the feeling,” Fury agreed. “The things I used to do before I was in charge….”

Carol laughed, taking her hand down. “I can imagine.”

The two of them shared a grin. 

Bucky stole a glance over, somewhat stunned at the exchange. He didn’t know Fury well, but that was a different face for Carol. A friend, instead of a soldier or spy. Carefully, he returned his attention to watching the playful pair in the sky.

It didn’t last much longer before they came back to the boat. Sam first, shifting first to mer then to human, landing on the deck on two feet. Then Pepper flew over the clearest section downwind, and shifted, landing as easily as Sam had. 

Fury stepped away from the railing, the military back in every fiber of his body. “Miss Pepper Potts… truly a surprise to see you here.”

Pepper looked up from finger combing her long hair back. “Do I know you?”

Fury laughed, not in humor. “No… but SHIELD is very interested in anybody applying for positions in Stark Industries. Particularly when one is the new executive assistant to young Tony. We did background checks of our own on all the applications… Yours was typical. Very typical. Which is now very surprising for somebody who apparently hasn’t been in this world for longer than ten months.”

Whereas Sam and Carol looked very much like soldiers and fighters in their human form, Pepper did not. Bucky would have classed her as ‘civilian, no threat’ if he’d come across her during a mission. Even now. Yet her inner strength showed as she didn’t quail from Fury’s focus.

“It better have checked out,” she replied calmly. “That’s my specialty.” She smiled at him. “Not all of us during the war were soldiers. I am good at organization and foreign systems.”

“Pepper is very good at it,” Carol agreed, coming to her side. “And you are not going to browbeat one of my people, Fury.”

Fury gave in. “Mostly, I want to know how you did it.”

The three of them moved into the cabin area, talking as they did.

Sam moved over to Bucky and helped himself to one of the sandwiches. “I’m going to miss her,” he sighed. “Pep’s a good person.” 

There wasn’t a lot Bucky could say. He did wonder, though, “What about Nat?”

“Oh, Nat will stay. Pretty positive on that,” Sam replied easily. “If she goes back, they’re going to put her to work in command and recovery, and that’s her least favorite thing. She’s good at it – she’s good at anything she puts her mind to. But she likes it here. Bet she’d like that Fury person too.”

Bucky grinned. “I’m not taking a bet on a sure thing.”

\--- 

Over the course of the day, people came in. They came in all sorts of forms and types. A red horse that galloped through the air without wings, a white fox with many tails, a dark demon that shifted so quickly out of form that Bucky couldn’t tell anything about him, a being half-serpent and half-bird, … and a dragon. A beautiful, huge, dragon in the longer, curving form of Eastern legends.

Bucky wasn’t surprised when the dragon turned out to be Natasha. She looked over at him, winked, and Bucky couldn’t help but smile back. Yeah, she was staying as well. That was good to know, that Sam’s best friend would also still be around.

Shortly after a clump of several arrivals at once, Bucky had retreated up to the Captain’s Chair, his little nest up above the main part of the boat with a good view and a whole lot of privacy. Sam stayed down with the incoming people, talking with them, greeting all easily, though some more happily than others. Bucky took note of who was who. 

As a small finch, Pepper had flown up to sit near him. She, like all the others, couldn’t talk in that form, but it didn’t stop her from asking if it was okay. Bucky appreciated the silence. He didn’t entirely appreciate the company… but it was interesting and he didn’t say no. Nobody had ever come just to sit near the Winter Solider in silence.

The sun had set and the colors were starting to fade from the sky when the last person arrived. Not actually on his own – Carol had apparently had to go and fetch him and the man stayed in his human form the entire time. 

When they were all there, the red horse, Wanda, created a transport vehicle for them out of thin air. It glowed faintly rose and nobody in the group blinked at it. In fact, they all got in without any signs of worry or concern. 

Bucky shook his head. He trusted Sam… he wasn’t so sure he would trust a vehicle made of nothing. His trust wouldn’t be tested at this point, though, as he and Fury were staying on the boat. 

Carol used her controller to make a large pool of mist on the deck, and promised them that she would activate visuals when they got to the eddy. She wanted Fury to know who went and who stayed, and by extension, Bucky as well. 

Fury got out a deck chair and made himself a margarita and settled in to wait. 

After a moment of staring at the sight, Bucky went back for a beer and then joined him.

“They must have had a gate here in the past,” Fury remarked conversationally. “That’s too many legends for coincidence.”

Bucky agreed. “But if none are here now… did they just… die?”

“Everybody dies sometime.” Fury sipped on his drink. “I suspect they interbred. We know they can,” he looked pointedly at Bucky, who found himself unexpectly blushing. “There have always been people on Earth who can do more than most. And rumors of more.”

In his time of the Winter Soldier, Bucky had been awakened often for more than just assassinations. He had thought that some of those had been experiments out of hand… but perhaps not. There were certainly a lot of other things he couldn’t always explain by logic, including himself. He opened and closed his hand, looking at the faint metal shimmer. 

Fury watched but didn’t remark. Instead he said, “I almost wish I could go to their planet.”

“Really?” That hadn’t even crossed Bucky’s mind.

Fury gestured with the drink in a ‘who knows’ fashion. “Not having the choice, it’s easy to speculate. But… another world. What would it be like?”

“There’s a lot in our own world nothing like other parts. Travel does that. The people… the people all seem the same.”

“True enough,” Fury admitted. “Lots of people, some good, some bad, most just muddling through.” He sipped the margarita again. “Guess I’ll stay. It would be hard to walk away with things undone.”

“Now that you’ve found a partner?” Bucky guessed.

Fury shook his head. “Not me. And Carol’s not staying. They depend on her too much. She said she might visit, though. Sometimes.”

Bucky blinked. “I thought they couldn’t do that.”

“They can’t – Carol’s different, being a star. Apparently she doesn’t need eddies to travel, just has to know where she’s going.”

The mist formed up into a compact ball and images appeared, the group milling around the eddy, but not too close to it.

Both men leaned forward to watch.

\--- 

In the end, it was a small group of seven that returned. Carol had gone back through the gate with the rest. Sam had returned with Natasha, Wanda, Pepper, and three others. Pepper, apparently, had surprised everybody, including Carol, with her choice. 

“I like this technology,” she had said, “and I like the people.”

“Oh good,” Fury had murmured quietly. “I would hate for Tony to get a new assistant. Do you know she’s lasted in the position for six months? Tony never keeps anybody around that long.”

Bucky blinked. What with Steve’s earlier remark about starting to talk to Tony as well, he foresaw a lot more get-togethers in their future.

For now, he was running around figuring out cots and bedding for nine people. They all, however, laughed at him and shifted to their animal forms to sleep. All but one – the man who hadn’t shifted before, Bruce. And Fury as well. They worked it out. (Sam snuck back aboard and into his bed later in the night, and Bucky didn’t say a word, just held him close.)

The next day, they all scattered back to where they’d been staying. Fury caught a ride on Natasha’s dragon back, looking dubious and warning her not to drop him. Wanda took Bruce with her.

Sam stayed. 

Sam stayed, and Bucky thanked him for staying, relief overweighing his guilt and worry.

“Oh calm down,” Sam told Bucky as he held him close, petting his hair. “I’m staying because I want to. Whales, Bucky. Whales!”

As Bucky relaxed into sleep, he heard Sam say, “And you too, of course,” with a kiss pressed against his skin.

Bucky couldn’t regret anything. His fish was staying, and he would get to take him home as well.

\--- 

Sam looked at the human sleeping in his arms and smiled. His human, all his. Well, almost all his. This one had a family, and friends, and a job offering. And he would share all that with Sam.

The home world was forever removed from them now, but that was the way of memories. One couldn’t ever go back to the past. One just had to live with where they were now. 

Sam chose to live in this world, with Bucky. That was his life now.

Tomorrow, he might even go steal a sandwich or two. They were out of supplies again.

* * *

* * *

**Author's Note:**

> That got a little longer than expected! And it was still shortened, at that. There's a bunch of scenes that were plotted but didn't make it into the story for either pacing or timing reasons. And there's also a ton more to all the research on this. Setting the story up initially, Cat-Hesarose and I traded research and notes to make sure we had worked out the world-building for the base of it. But putting most of that in the story would have been too much information dump and not enough story. So it's not all in there; just what needs to be, hopefully. If you have questions, though, let us know and we'll be happy to reply!


End file.
